ROME:
The number of Italians who left their country and foreigners have risen to the highest in a decade, the official data has shown on Friday, so that national concerns about Brainrain, economic decline and immigration were fueled.
Italy has chosen a right -wing government in 2022 to curb migrant arrivals, but also has a shrinking population and growing labor shortages, which emphasizes the need to attract foreign employees.
In the meantime, the stagnant economy of the country and the low wages – salaries are lower than 1990 in inflation -corrected terms – are blamed because they encourage many Italians to find better fortunes abroad.
Last year 382,071 foreigners moved to Italy, an increase of 378,372 in 2023 and the highest since 2014, said Statistics Agency Istat. In the same period, 155,732 Italians emigrated, an increase of 114,057 in 2023 and also the highest since 2014.
The immigration figure defeated the previous high before the last decade of 301,000 in 2017 and was far beyond the low point of 191,766 of that period from 2020 – the height of the COVID Pandemie.
The figure of nearly 270,000 nationals who emigrated in the two -year period from 2023 to 2024 increased by around 40% compared to the previous two years.
The two-year immigration figure for that period, of around 760,000, rose by 31% from 2021-2022. The figures are derived from city registration offices, so it is unlikely that they reflect migration without papers.
Ukrainians were the largest national group among those who arrived in 2023-2024, said Istat, followed by Albanians, Bangladeshis, Moroccans, Romanians, Egyptians, Pakistanies, Argentines and Tunisians.
Regarding the large number of emigrants, “it is more than plausible” that a considerable number of “former immigrants” were moving abroad after acquiring Italian citizenship, Istat said.
The agency also said that the poorer south of Italy continued to disclose, and noted that almost 1% of the inhabitants in Calabria, the region with the lowest income per head of the population, moved to central or northern areas in 2023-2024. Reuters
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