Italy's Flows of Migrants

Over the last few months, immigration has been at the center of European debate, in the media and in parliaments. The dramatic images of drowning refugees desperately fleeing war have shaken Europe's conscience and led to great changes in public opinion and the management of migratory flows.

Leaving drama and emotions aside for a moment, it's useful to focus on migration numbers. Together with Giovanni Peri at the University of California, Davis we have compared Italy's migratory outflows (i.e. the number of Italians leaving the country, taken from AIRE data) with its migratory inflows, as calculated by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

The results are surprising. In 2014 alone, more that 110,000 Italian citizens migrated abroad to seek employment and wealth. Had they traveled by boat like asylum seekers do, each week we would have seen a barge filled with 2,100 people aboard leaving the country. Still in 2014, immigrants seeking asylum in Italy (60,000 people) were about half of the Italians who were leaving. And only a few thousand actually managed to be granted asylum.

The purpose here is not to compare the precarious condition of migrants to the easier world of Italian expats, but to put these two flows next to each so to make two important reflections about the nature and perception of immigration, one concerning the economic impact of migrants, the other concerning the way Italy sees its collaboration with Europe.

First of all, it's wrong to put the emphasis on the costs of managing the arrival of migrants, when in 2010-2014 the loss of 200,000 productive and talented youth has cost Italy incomparably more in terms of output loss: their human capital simply added to the growth of other economies.

In an integrated world, transnational migration is physiological. Young immigrants should thus be seen as potential resources, rather than costs. For instance, in Ireland large outmigration towards England the US has been counterbalanced by large immigration from Eastern Europe, which contributed to the 2000-2010 economic boom.

The second point is about Italy ungenerously criticizing the rest of Europe about the management of the "migrant crisis". Over the last few years, Italy has given asylum to a tiny number of refugees (never more than 3,500 a year), while Germany granted asylum to 30,000 people in 2014 only.

Also one should consider that the rest of Europe has taken in 873,000 Italian immigrants since 1992. The lion's share went to Germany (221,000), while France and the UK received about 120,000 Italians each. Certainly, there is free mobility across EU borders, but it's ungenerous to portray Germany, a country that welcomes tens of thousands refugees each year as well as tens of thousands of Italians, as a state which is skirting the load of responsibility.

So rather than as an emergency to be solved, immigration should be seen as a resource to be strategically managed for growth. In order to exploit the potential benefits of immigration, Italy needs planning of migrant flows, a flexible labor market, and a better immigration policy. We should thus accept a significant number of legal immigrants, and give them the same opportunities that Italians are offered when they migrate abroad. We should be grateful to the rest of Europe for the job careers and economic successes of the Italians who moved there.