Romanian Nationals Prevalent Among Immigrants In Italy – Report

The ISMU (Initiatives and Studies on Multi-Ethnicity) report indicates over 4.8 million immigrants in Italy on January 1, 2009, namely, 500,000 more than in 2008. Romanian nationals account for the largest number of immigrants in Italy, namely 968,000, or 21% of total immigrants, followed by Albanians (538,000) and Moroccans (497,000).

Italy reported 222,000 more immigrants who found jobs in the country, despite the economic crisis and the number of illegal immigrants has decreased from 651,000 in 2008 to 422,000 in 2009, the report also said.

Italian schools registered 200,000 Italy-born children, without Italian citizenship, during the 2007-2008 school year.

According to ISMU, crimes and felonies among immigrants are on the rise. At the middle of the year, 23,696 of a total 63,981 convicts were foreigners, compared with 21,562 of a total 58,127 convicts in 2008).

The economic crisis also affected the amounts of money sent by immigrants to their home countries. Thus, immigrants sent EUR1.48 billion to their relatives in home countries in the first quarter of 2009, down 4.7% from the same period in 2008.