Indian immigration to Italy: concentration, internal mobility and economic crisis

ABSTRACT

The spatial concentration of immigrants has become a concern for local administrations in most European countries, as it is perceived as an obstacle to their better integration in host societies. Indian immigration to Italy began in the 1960s, but large-scale immigration of unskilled labour from Punjab and Haryana (North-West Indian states) began during the 1990s. This influx was formed by young men who entered Italy in search of economic opportunities and then concentrated spatially in the economically active regions. In this paper, using the municipal registers of inhabitants (Anagrafe), the residence permits records and the 2011 census data, firstly, I made a spatial analysis (LISA) of the settlement pattern of Indian immigrants in Italy; second, I explored the internal mobility pattern (through a gravity model) of Indian immigrants compared to other immigrant groups during 2005–2015; and finally, I studied the impact of the recent economic crisis on Indian immigration.

KEYWORDS:

• Indian immigration
• concentration
• spatial analysis
• internal mobility
• economic crisis
• Italy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Nachatter Singh Garha is a Post Doctorate researcher (POP) in the Centre for Demographic Studies (CED). He holds PhD in Demography from the CED and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Master in Demography from the European Doctoral School of Demography (EDSD) and Master in Territorial and Population Studies from the CED and the UAB.

ORCID

Nachatter Singh Garha http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4506-680X

Additional information

Funding

This article is funded by R&D&I project, Demography, migrations and new statistical frontiers: Big Data, Continuous Population Registers and Administrative Records, financed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Spain [grant number CSO2017-85670-R].