Undocumented Migrants and Underground Work

Laboratorio RosarnoPolitecnico di Milano, 12 November 2010

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Immigrants in Italy

Source: Istat

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Years Immigrant population % population

1981 320.778 0,57

1991 625.034 1,10

2001 1.334.889 2,34

2008 3.432.651 5,80

2010 4.235.059 7,00

Irregular Migrants

A migrant is irregular if he doesn’t get regular document that permit to live and work in a third country. We can call their also undocumented migrants.

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How many irregular migrants are in Italy?

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Sources: Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Labour and ISMU

How do the irregular immigrants enter in Italy?

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Irregular immigrants in Italy classified by the access pathways (in %)

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Overstayers 59 61 51 75 67 60 64

Undocumented immigrants entering across land or through airports

24 27 34 15 29 26 23

Undocumented immigrants shore-landing 17 12 15 10 4 14 13

Sources: Italian Ministry of Interior

Who are the overstayers?

The majority of irregular immigrants enter in Italy with a regular visa, to then stay on once it has run out. This category, called overstayers, (in France also distinguished between “faux étudiant, faux tourists”) represents the real weak point in the chain of control.

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How do the overstayers enter in Italy?

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Visa Uniform Schengen (VUS) 2001 – 2007 Years VUS Tourist VUS Var. % % Tourist VUS of

total

2001 723.346 422.947 58,47

2002 533.124 287.474 -47,13 53,92

2003 648.539 379.143 24,18 58,46

2004 737.893 454.437 16,57 61,59

2005 811.006 515.200 11,79 63,53

2006 947.916 623.180 17,33 65,74

2007 1.130.266 760.376 18,04 67,27

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Why do the irregular immigrants want to come in Italy?

The pull factors

1.Family and social networks2.Weakness of border checks3.Regularisations4.Underground Work

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Transnational Theory

Macro structures: include the political economy of the world market, interstate relationship, the laws, structures and practices established by the states of sending and receiving countries to control migration settlement. Micro structures: are the informal social networks developed by the migrants themselves.

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The social networks

“Migration decisions are not made by isolated individuals, but by families, households or even communities.”… “Family linkages often provide the financial, cultural and social capital which make migration possible, the irregular migration too.” We can call Autonomy of Migration “The age of Migration” by S. Castles and M. J. Millerhttp://www.age-of-migration.com/

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Turkish immigrants in Germany (in thousands)

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Source: Statistischen Bundesamts Deutschland

Regularisations

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Regularisation can be classified on the basis of differing criteria:1. The first is the political-juridical ratio of each regularisation. Regularisation can be divided in: A) pragmatic: that is to say, they take note of objective given data and ,B) humanitarian: based on merit evaluation of the conditions of the potential beneficiary; 2. The second criteria is that relative to the type of procedure that we can distinguish in A) extraordinary and collective or, B) punctual with permanent regularisation mechanisms based on the individual.

Regularisations in Italy

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In Italy the regularisations adopted have been 7 in 25 years (8 if we consider the Quota system decree of 2006 ) and are of very high numbersIn Italy the choice of regularisation is linked also to the consolidated tradition of amnesty, that is to say a measure that nullifies sanctions or penalties (fiscal, building speculation,..etc..)Of the 4 million official immigrants present in Italy more than 50% entered as undocumented migrants

Extraordinary Regularisation in Italy

Sources: Istat, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Labour

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Regularisations Immigrants

Legge 943/86 105.000

Legge 39/90 217.626

D.L. 489/95 244.492

D.p.c.m. 16/10/1998 217.124

D.L. 195/2002 646.829

D.P.C.M.del 25/02/2006 e D.P.C.M.del 25/10/2006 520.000D.L. 78/2009 – A.C. 2561-A

300.000

Underground Economy

The main reason for such a wide presence of irregular migration is linked to the easy access to Italian territory even for irregular immigrants to work in the underground economy without being discovered. The countries of Southern Europe (Greece, Italy and Spain) are seen as States with the highest GDP produced from the underground economy. The data following slide shows a structural weakness of Italy in combating underground work as entire sectors of the economy such as agriculture, building trade and home help assistance (INPS 2008) survive thanks to underground work which often employs irregular and regular immigrants.

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Underground Economy

11/12/10Source: F. Schneider e A. Buehn

% of GDP produced from underground economy( in some OECD Countries 2006)

Undocumented Migrant Workers 2001 - 2009 (in thousands)

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Source: Istat

Irregular rates per unit work for different economic sectors 2001 - 2009

Sources: Istat, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Labour

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Institutional inspection activity

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Years Inspected Firms Irregular Firms Irregular workers Underground workers

2008 315.170 197.843 307.625 127.349

2009 303.691 175.144 316.310 124.476

Var. % -3,64% -11,47% 2,82% -2,26%

Sources: Ministry of Labour and Istat

Conclusions so that Rosarno riots won’t happen anymore

1. Fighting the underground economy2. Different programs for recruitment of skilled anunskilled migrants 3. Fewer regularisations and less amnesty4. More rights for Migrants and fighting criminality5. Less demagogic political speech

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BibliographyM.C. Chiuri, N. Coniglio e G. Ferri, “L’esercito degli invisibili. Aspetti economici dell’immigrazione clandestina”, Il Mulino,

Bologna, 2008.

Annuari statistici del Ministero Affari Esteri, 2003 – 2008

AA. VV., “Quindicesimo rapporto sulle Migrazioni 2009” a cura della Fondazione ISMU, Franco Angeli, Milano 2009.

Ministero del Lavoro, della Salute e delle Politiche Sociali, “Rapporto annuale sull’attività di vigilanza in materia di lavoro

e previdenziale”, anno 2007.

S. Castles and M. J. Miller, “The age of Migration”, Palgrave macmillan, London, 2009

ISTAT, Indagine conoscitiva su taluni fenomeni distorsivi del mercato del lavoro (lavoro nero, caporalato e sfruttamento

della manodopera straniera), Roma, 15 aprile 2010 (http://www.istat.it/istat/audizioni/150410/Audizione.pdf)

A. Leogrande, ”Uomini e caporali. Viaggio tra i nuovi schiavi nelle campagne del Sud”, Mondadori, Milano, 2008,

G. Zucca, “Arginare i mille rivoli del Lavoro Nero”, www.immigrationflows.net

Contacts:

Pietro Vallone

www.immigrationflows.net

pietro.vallone@gmail.com

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