Italians with suitcases: young people and 'grandparents babysitting', 1.64 million expatriates in twenty years

But where do Italians who leave Italy go? Mostly to Europe, which is the "centre of gravity of Italian mobility in the last twenty years": from 2006 to 2024, just under 1.25 million expatriations, i.e. 76% of the total, were to other countries in the Old Continent, from which 60% of returns also came (488,000). The European Union enlarged to include the United Kingdom alone absorbs almost half of the departures (46.4%) and over a third of the returns (36.8%). Here is the ranking of countries for expatriates: Great Britain (289,000), Germany (248,000), Switzerland (166,000), France (162,000) and Spain (106,000), which alone account for about 59% of the total departures. Even on the return side, the ranking remains European: Germany (125 thousand), the United Kingdom (82 thousand) and Switzerland (69 thousand) are in the lead. It is precisely the EU that is at the heart of the imbalance: -459 thousand, over 56% of the total balance in the period. In other words, most of the outflows (and imbalances) of Italian citizens take place within the European area of free movement, while the rest of the world weighs much less.

North America totals 102 thousand expatriations and 54 thousand returns (with a balance of -48 thousand), while Oceania counts 36 thousand expatriations and 14 thousand returns (balance -22 thousand), significant flows, but far from those in Europe in terms of volume and impact. In Asia the imbalance is modest (65 thousand departures and 60 thousand returns). For the African continent, the balance is positive, albeit on small volumes (overall +16 thousand). The discourse is different for Central and South America, where the numbers are high in both directions (153 thousand expatriations and 157 thousand returns) and the overall balance is slightly positive (+4 thousand); very often these trajectories include quotas of new Italians, very large Italian-descendant communities that obtain citizenship iure sanguinis. The countries receiving the largest share of expatriates across the Atlantic are the United States (83 thousand) and Brazil (80 thousand).

Overall, the national negative balance of 817,000 citizens is made up of about one-fifth from Lombardy, more than a tenth each from Veneto and Sicily, followed by Lazio, Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont. The picture that emerges from the report is that of 'three Italies of mobility': the 'node' regions with significant flows in both directions but a negative balance (Lombardy in the lead), the North-East with a very high propensity to leave and the South with substantial returns but insufficient to compensate for emigration.

Of the 6.412 million Italians registered with Aire in constant growth since 2006 - more than the 5.42 million foreigners that make up the mosaic of the 58.93 million residents in Italy - 48.3% are now women. The Migrantes Foundation reports, in fact, how in the general climate of increase, the presence of compatriots abroad is growing at a faster rate than men (since 2006 +115.9% of women compared to +98.3% of men). On the other hand, the interviews collected in recent years thanks to the report show that "the Italian family manages to feel stronger abroad and to live more serenely, more supported by the legislator and accompanied by a welfare system that is more attentive to women, mothers and workers, to children from birth to the completion of their education and sometimes even beyond, and to the general well-being of the family unit". There are 3.85 million families outside the country.

The over-65s make up 20.5% of the Aire population, the under-65s 14.9%; the largest portion is however made up of 35-49 year-olds (23.2%), followed by 18-34 year-olds (22%) and 50-64 year-olds (19.6%). Of the total number of Italians in Aire, 47.1% are registered for the reason 'expatriation'; 41.3% are registered by birth. A 'twenty-first region' to all intents and purposes, that of the community of Italians abroad, which grows larger with each passing year. In the last year there have been 278,000 registrations (+4.5%), almost 479,000 in the last three years (+8.1%), more than twice as many since 2006 (+106.4%). 53.8% of those enrolled in Aire live in Europe (over 3.4 million), 41.1% in America (over 2.6 million of which only 490 thousand in North America). The largest communities in the world remain those in Argentina (990,000) and Germany (849,000). It is from the South that 45.1% of those registered come from and Sicily is the region with the largest number of residents abroad (844 thousand), followed by Lombardy (690 thousand) and Veneto (614 thousand). Although in 2024, all the regions in the Centre-North have higher variations than the national average (+4.5%): Veneto, Lombardy, Tuscany 6.6%, Piedmont and Marche, Trentino-Alto Adige, Liguria and Umbria.

In 2024 there was a full recovery of post-pandemic mobility (34,000 more departures, with 123,376 new Aire registrations for expatriation): those packing their bags at a higher rate are largely young people between 18 and 34 (+47.9% compared to 2023) and between 35 and 49 (+38.5%). Young people and young adults, in essence, reach 72.2% (they were 68.8% the previous year). But the report also points out the +35.9% departure of so-called 'mature adults' (13,433 adults, 10.9% of the total): many have escaped Italian unemployment, but 'many are part of the universe of grandparents babysitters, those Italians, that is, who have moved to be help and support for children and grandchildren living abroad, especially when the children are just born and not of school age, reinventing themselves in their work as well'. Then there are 800 more over-65s than in 2023: 5,700 in all, 4.6% of the total, attributable to so-called 'welfare mobility'.

The year 2024 not only marked the overcoming of the pandemic that had slowed down travel, but also turned Brexit into a memory: after several years in which the UK was firmly in first place as the destination of expats, now Germany leads the ranking. Third, after the UK, is Spain, fourth Switzerland and fifth France. Europe is at the centre of desires, therefore (73.7% of those who registered with Aire for expatriation between January and December 2024 went to the Old Continent), although there is no lack of emigration towards emerging professional contexts (the Orient, Singapore, the Arab Emirates, but also Scandinavia). The main departure provinces are Milan, Naples, Turin, Rome, Treviso, Palermo and Brescia.

In the last decade, from 2014 to 2024, the internal migration balance in the South was negative by 511,000 units: 1.098 million southerners moved to the Centre-North, just 587,000 made the opposite journey. In almost half of the cases to flee the South were young people between 20 and 34 years old, for another 21.8% individuals between 35 and 49 years old. Overall, the South recorded a net loss of around 373,000 young people. Departures that "if not replaced by an equal number of entries," the report notes, "constitute a phenomenon with significant consequences, from a demographic as well as a social and economic point of view".

The study invites us to trace the common thread of departures not in the flight, but in the choice to go in search of dignity, recognition and social mobility. "The big bluff," it reads, "is not between brains or arms, but in not recognising that everyone is talented. That is why it is not enough to take measures to retain them, it is not enough to regret them: what is needed, for the Migrantes Foundation, is their involvement in the construction of new collective visions effective to overcome imbalances. Because territorial inequalities feed "in a vicious circle, both the internal exodus and the exodus towards foreign countries". And internal displacement is often just the appetiser before emigrating abroad.

The report invites us to read mobility as a resource to be listened to and valued, not as a wound to be hidden. As a nation that redefines itself in transnational networks and communities, and no longer just as a country that flees and is afraid to welcome. "This Italy cannot have as an answer only the decree-law of 28 March 2025 that introduced changes to the principle of ius sanguinis, limiting automatic citizenship to two generations of descent," Monsignor Perego noted. "At the same time, a referendum was rejected on reducing the time for citizenship from ten to five years, even for the 65% of children born in Italy to parents of other nationalities and attending our schools: a legislative squint".