Italians increasingly with suitcases, abroad 'is the new social lift'

"Abroad is the new social lift", because Italy "drives young resources away" from cities with high rents and prohibitive living costs, without healing the "migratory wound" in any way, that is, without valuing those who arrive in our country in search of a more dignified existence and those who leave in the hope of being able to return. The Italians in the World 2024 report, presented today in Rome by the Migrantes Foundation, resembles a cry of pain. With an explicit j'accuse. 'It is not possible,' said the president of the Foundation, Monsignor Gian Carlo Perego, 'for politics not to recognise the changes that are taking place in the polis. It must interpret and govern them with appropriate and non-prejudicial instruments. From 1992 to today, Italy has changed'. The reference to citizenship, to which the document is dedicated, is clear.

The official numbers are eloquent, although notoriously undersized compared to the real scope of the phenomenon: since 2006, the presence of our compatriots abroad has grown by 97.5%, practically doubling to over 6.1 million registered with Aire (the Registry of Italians resident abroad). Lapidary the report: 'For some time now, the only Italy that has grown is the one that has chosen to live abroad. In the last decade, departures with the sole reason of 'expatriation' amounted to 1,179,525. About 471,000, the majority, are young people between 18 and 34 or young adults (just over 290,000). The under-18s number more than 228,000: this means - the report explains - that more and more are leaving with their children or are deciding to do so directly outside their country's borders. Just over 30 thousand are over 65.

This mass of departures is not matched by as many returns, but by 'the desertification of territories with the most productive and creative minds and arms'. By 2020, Italy has about 652,000 fewer residents. In the same period, however, the growth of those who have decided to reside outside the national borders continues (+11.8%). "Abroad," concludes the report, edited by Delfina Licata, "has replaced the social lift that was blocked in the 1990s".

In 2023, 45.5% of the total of 89,462 expatriates registered with Aire (not yet back to the 130,000 per year pre-pandemic figure, but on the upswing with +9.1% compared to 2022, equal to 7,500 departures in absolute terms) are between 18 and 34 years old. Another 23.3% are between 35 and 49 years old. Those who leave, in short, are the youngest and most dynamic part of the population. Expat women, mostly in search of the enhancement they cannot find at home (a new phenomenon already reported in last year's report) remain at 45% of the total, as in 2022: they number 40,401. The numbers are expected to rise in 2024, due to the entry into force of Law 213/2023, which introduced a new penalty regime for those who do not register with Aire (from 200 to 1,000 euros for each year of non-compliance).

The Old Continent remains the favourite destination of Italians: it welcomed 71.4% (64 thousand people) of those who moved abroad in 2023, leaving for 189 countries around the world. In general, 54.2% of those registered with Aire are in Europe: more than 3.3 million people. A further 40.6% live in America: more than 2.4 million people, including 2 million in Central and South America. "The prominence of this area of the world is returning," the report notes, commenting on the increase in acquisitions of citizenship from Argentina (the country with the largest community of Italians, followed by Germany and Switzerland) and Brazil, the state where the most compatriots have registered since 2023.