Internal migration patterns
Since the unification of Italy in the mid-19th century, internal movements have followed a regular pattern—south to north and east to west. People have moved from the southern regions and Sicily to the central regions of Lazio and Tuscany and to the northwest—to Lombardy, Liguria, and Piedmont. They moved in the same way from Veneto to the northwest. Movement from Emilia-Romagna, Marche, and Umbria to regions in the northwest has also been significant. Population movement was relatively slight during the fascist era between the wars, when permits were required for movement inside the country. Exceptionally, substantial numbers of Italians seeking work at the huge Lingotto vehicle factory run by Fiat were granted permits to go to Turin.
After World War II and the demise of fascism, Italy entered a period of unprecedented economic growth and high population mobility. The prosperity of the urban areas, especially the industrial triangle of Lombardy-Piedmont-Liguria, contrasted with continuing hardship and poverty in the upland and rural areas, especially in the south. Rapid industrialization in the urban centres acted as a strong “pull” factor, encouraging rural workers to abandon the land and head for the cities. The disparity of wealth and of employment between urban and rural areas triggered a period of intense rural depopulation from the uplands in the Alps, the Apennines, Sicily, and Calabria and an influx of migrants to Rome, Milan, Turin, and Genoa. This movement continues today, although the slowing of economic growth has reduced the “pull” exerted by the industrial areas. Unemployment runs high, especially among the young. Emigration and immigration
In nearly a century between 1876 and 1970, an estimated 25 million Italians left the country in search of work. Of those, 12 million left for destinations outside Europe. In the 1860s, transatlantic migration was most frequent among northern Italians and was often associated with certain trades; for example, farmers, artists, and street traders tended to emigrate to the United States. Two decades later, however, the trend had become a mass phenomenon, with the main migrants increasingly emanating from the south. Their principal destination was the United States, favoured by more than half the emigrants, the others choosing Argentina, Brazil, and Canada. Some also went to Australia. In the 1920s the United States introduced strict immigration laws, and economic conditions in Brazil and Argentina deteriorated so much that transatlantic emigration was stymied. In addition, the fascist regime opposed emigration, and during World War II emigration halted almost completely. After 1945 destinations were mainly European, the most popular being France initially and then West Germany and Switzerland. During that period the nature of emigration patterns changed, becoming less stable. In many cases the emigrants were mostly male, as some European countries refused entry to workers’ relatives because of housing shortages. Often Italian workers would remain abroad for short periods of time, returning every so often to Italy. On the eve of the 1973 oil embargo, more than 850,000 Italians were working in Switzerland and countries of the European Economic Community (EEC; later succeeded by the European Union [EU]), where the ensuing recession and rising unemployment forced many Italians back home.
Italy: Resident foreignersEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
In 1972 Italy for the first time registered more people entering the country than leaving, in part because of repatriation but also as a result of immigration from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. For several years the scale of the influx of non-European immigrants was difficult to assess, as no policy existed either to measure or to control it until the mid-1980s. The collapse of communist regimes in eastern Europe brought fresh waves of immigrants from Poland, Romania, Albania, and the Yugoslav region. Many arrived via seaports on the Adriatic coast, claiming refugee status. Some were repatriated, but others were relocated to inland destinations. An ongoing difficulty is the flow of illegal immigrants from Albania. In 2017 there were about five million foreigners in Italy, more than two-thirds of whom were from non-EU countries. The majority of new arrivals settled in the north and centre of Italy, and the south had a relatively higher proportion of African and North American immigrants than the north. Economy An overview
The Italian economy has progressed from being one of the weakest economies in Europe following World War II to being one of the most powerful. Its strengths are its metallurgical and engineering industries, and its weaknesses are a lack of raw materials and energy sources. More than four-fifths of Italy’s energy requirements are imported. Nonetheless, the chemical sector also flourishes, and textiles constitute one of Italy’s largest industries. A strong entrepreneurial bias, combined with liberal trade policies following the war, enabled manufacturing exports to expand at a phenomenal rate, but a cumbersome bureaucracy and insufficient planning hindered an even economic development throughout the country. Services, particularly tourism, are also very important. At the end of the 20th century, Italy, seeking balance with other EU nations, brought its high inflation under control and adopted more conservative fiscal policies, including sweeping privatization.
Leather shoes being manufactured at a factory in Milan, Italy.© Stephanie Maze/Corbis
Although the Italian economy was a relative latecomer to the industrialization process, business in the north of the country caught up with and overtook many of its western European neighbours. Southern Italy, however, lagged behind. The percentage of the labour force working in agriculture is often taken as an indication of the rate of industrialization and wealth of a nation, and in Italy’s case the figures clearly illustrate the grave imbalances existing between north and south. Against an EU average of 5 percent in 2013, 3.6 percent of the Italian population worked on the land, with as many agricultural labourers from the 8 regions in the south as from the 12 regions in the north and centre. Calabria and Basilicata have the largest concentrations of farm labourers.
pastaRavioli being made at a pasta factory in Italy.© areafoto/Fotolia
Although Italy is not self-sufficient agriculturally, certain commodities form an important part of the export market. Notably, the country is a world leader in olive oil production and a major exporter of rice, tomatoes, and wine. Cattle raising, however, is less advanced; meat and dairy products are imported. Public and private sectors
The Italian economy is mixed, and until the beginning of the 1990s the state owned a substantial number of enterprises. At that time the economy was organized as a pyramid, with a holding company at the top, a middle layer of financial holding companies divided according to sector of activity, and below them a mass of companies operating in diverse sectors, ranging from banking, expressway construction, media, and telecommunications to manufacturing, engineering, and shipbuilding. One example, the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale; IRI), set up in 1933 and closed in 2000, was a holding company that regulated public industries and banking. Many of those companies were partly owned by private shareholders and listed on the stock exchange. By the 1980s moves had already been made to increase private participation in some companies. The most notable examples were Mediobanca SpA, Italy’s foremost merchant bank, with shareholdings in major industrial concerns; Alitalia, the national airline, which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2008 before being sold to a private investment group; and the telecommunications company Telecom Italia SpA, which was created in 1994 through the merger of five state-run telecommunications concerns. Many other banks were also partially privatized under the Banking Act of 1990.