Statistical Dossier on Immigration 2023

The Statistical Immigration Dossier, now in its 33rd edition, is an annual report that illustrates the migratory landscape of Italy across its most fundamental thematic and territorial areas through a reasoned analysis of the most up-to-date statistical data.

In 2022, employment in Italy returned to 2019 levels, but with differentiated growth based on citizenship: a stronger increase in foreigners (+5.2%) compared to Italians (+2.1%). Overall, foreigners account for 10.3% of the total employed population and 16.0% of the unemployed. Furthermore, their impact on the total workforce shows significant variability: less than 1% in public administration services, around 2% in the credit and insurance sectors and in education, 15.6% in construction, 17.0% in hotels/restaurants and agriculture, and 62.2% in family services.

The analysed data reveals that there are 405 Italian municipalities where illegal practices in agricultural labour are detected: 129 in the North, 82 in the Center, 123 in the South, and 71 in the Islands. Compared to the 2018 census, when there were 205, the numbers have doubled, confirming that exploitation in agriculture has become almost “systemic” throughout the entire agri-food supply chain, including excellence. In turn, domestic work, with 70% of workers being immigrants, saw a decrease in the number of employed individuals in 2022, especially among foreigners. The latter are approximately 622,000, representing a decrease of 8.4%, which in many cases is indicative of a shift towards undeclared work, facilitated by the absence of adequate welfare and tax policies aimed at promoting regular employment.