Over 555,000 Romanians in Italy

Romanian immigrants topped all statistics on Immigration in Italy in 2007, just as they did the year before. On December 31, 2006, there were 555,997 Romanian citizens living in Italy, representing 15.1% of all foreign citizens. The Romanian community is followed in numbers (by far) by Morocco immigrants (387,031) and Albanians (381,011).

Romanian women represent 53.4% of the total, the „Immigrazione 2007” official report informs, as officials unveiled on Tuesday in Rome.

In 2006, the year before Romania’s accession to the European Union, Romanian citizens tabled 131,664 demands for work permits, representing 27.4% of the total applications made by non-Italian residents.

Before 2007, immigrants in Italy were mainly non-EU citizens, but the situation has changed, mainly due to Romania’s accession to the EU. EU citizens now represent 25% of all immigrants.

The report, put up by Carita Italia and the Migrantes foundation, involved the work of over 100 persons.

A relevant fact discussed by the document is that „the criminal components of the immigration mass mainly affects the honest citizens, (…) making necessary the fight against any racist behavior”.

Interior Minister Giualiano Amato, known for his „zero tolerance” policy concerning the immigrants’ crimes, failed to attend the meeting introducing the report, being busy with a new draft on „public safety regulations”. The draft includes, among others, simplified procedures for expelling EU citizens.