Depopulation: ‘We must give young people back the right to choose to stay’

This issue takes on even greater significance in Sicily. As a region with a special statute, it has the institutional tools to devise a tailored policy for its mountainous and inland areas.

The Sicilian highlands could be the focus of a scheme establishing ‘Mountain Free Zones’, through a tax regime specifically designed to offset the structural disadvantages arising from their remote geographical location, their distance from markets and services, and the gradual decline in population.

We would not be starting from scratch. The process regarding the Mountain Free Zones in Sicily is already underway and has for years fuelled expectations amongst local communities, local authorities and the business sector. It is a process that regional policymakers have been unable – or unwilling – to steer towards the expected outcome.

This is where we need to change our way of thinking.

Development-oriented taxation is not welfare. It does not mean distributing resources so that people remain in places where there are no prospects, but rather structurally reducing the cost of doing business and creating jobs in areas where regional disadvantages make it more difficult to invest.

If setting up a business in a mountainous area entails higher logistical costs, poorer accessibility and smaller markets, that area cannot be expected to compete on the same fiscal terms as an urban area. That disadvantage must be offset.

A differentiated and stable tax system could encourage investment in rural and mountain areas, the creation of new businesses, the consolidation of existing ones and, above all, employment.

It is employment, not a temporary bonus, that is the most effective policy for combating depopulation.

A young person will stay if they can envisage spending the next twenty or thirty years there – that is, setting up a business, finding a skilled job, buying a home, starting a family and living in an economically vibrant community.

Development-oriented taxation would also offer prospects to those who have not yet left – a generation that we risk losing twice over, because they live in areas where opportunities are dwindling and because public policies seem to encourage them to leave rather than creating the conditions for them to remain freely and productively.

Services, infrastructure, healthcare, education, transport and connectivity remain essential. But without an economic base capable of generating income and employment, they are not enough.

Before asking ourselves how to persuade someone to move to a small town, we should ask ourselves why those born there should be forced to leave.

This is the question that is missing from the debate.

We can increase bonuses and incentives, but as long as living and working in the Highlands remains less cost-effective than elsewhere, population trends are unlikely to change.

Development-oriented taxation can bring about a structural change to this equation.

Anything else is likely merely to slow down the depopulation without reversing its course.

The highlands do not ask to be kept alive artificially. They ask to be given the means to survive on their own.

And we mustn’t promise young people an incentive to stay. We must give them back the right to choose to stay.

*former president of the Association of Sicilian Mountain Free Zones