Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to provide an analysis of the evolution of migration policies in Italy, with a particular focus on the social protection offered to immigrants. With respect to most continental European countries, which experienced mass migration starting from the end of the Second World War, and to Finland and Eastern Europe, where migration is a completely new phenomenon, Italy (and Southern Europe more generally) can be considered as a ‘quasi-new immigration country’, since significant migration flows had already started in the second half of the 1970s. The first immigration law dates back to 1986, and since then an increasingly articulated set of norms and principles concerning both the regulation of new flows and the integration of regular residents has been adopted.

Over four million immigrants live in Italy today and most of them contribute – among other things – to the Italian welfare state system since they pay taxes and retirement contributions. According to Banca d’Italia data (2009, pp 62-8), the overall economic contribution of immigrants to gross domestic product (GDP) is slightly below 10 per cent. Furthermore, recent data (Caritas, 2008) shows that the employment rate for foreign immigrants is over 67.1 per cent, whereas the same rate is 58.1 per cent for Italians, and the participation rate is 73.2 per cent for non-Italians, whereas the same figure is 61.9 per cent for Italians, even though unemployment rates are more favourable to Italian citizens (5.9 per cent against 8.3 per cent for foreign citizens).

However, if we take a closer look at the companies where immigrants work, over 50 per cent of immigrants are employed in companies with fewer than 10 employees, whereas fewer than 17 per cent are employed in companies with more than 50 employees. The figures for Italian workers are quite different: almost 40 per cent are employed by companies with more than 50 employees, whereas about 28 per cent are employed in companies with fewer than 10 employees. Since Italian employment protection policies are mainly targeted at large companies (Jessoula et al, 2010), the low protection offered to workers of small-size companies has greater consequences on immigrants than on Italian workers. In other words, even for those ‘privileged’, that is, regular and working immigrants, access to social protection via their employment status is constantly at risk due to their specific working status.