8 March: Women represent the largest group among immigrants in Italy
International Women’s Day 2017
Women represent the largest group among immigrants in Italy
Milan, 7/03/2017
On International Women’s Day, the ISMU Foundation highlights that according to the latest data (1/01/2017) 2.1 million foreign-born women currently live in Italy, compared to 1.8 million foreign-born men. Such gap is particularly clear among people aged more than 18, with women representing 54% of the whole adult migrant population. Among migrant minors, the number of men (52%) is higher than the number of women.
The presence of women migrant has been on constant increase since 2007. Between 1984 and 2007 the ISMU Foundation has consistently reported a majority of migrant men, primarily due to the first major historical fluxes coming from Morocco and Albania. By 1st January 1991, 475.000 men were present in Italy, compared to 330.000 women. However, over the past decade the EU enlargement to Romania has made family reunification (mostly of women) more frequent and scaled up entries from Eastern Europe (mainly of caregivers). This has resulted in a feminisation of migration and in a doubling of the number of women migrants in Italy between 2006 and 2016 (as opposed to a 76% increase of men migrants).
The countries of origin. In absolute terms, most of the foreign-born nationals in Italy come from Albania, Morocco, Ukraine, Moldova, the Philippines, Poland, Peru, India, Ecuador, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Bulgaria. By early 2016, overrepresentation of women was recorded among migrants from Georgia (84%), Russia (82%), Belarus (81%) and Ukraine (79%), as well as Cuba, Brazil, Poland and Slovakia (73-74%). The lowest percentage of women is recorded among migrants from Mali and Afghanistan (6-7%), followed by Senegal (27%).
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WHO WE ARE
The ISMU Foundation – Initiatives and Studies on Multi-ethnicity is an independent research institute. Since 1993 ISMU has been committed to studying and disseminating knowledge on migration and has launched several projects on the inclusion of foreign-born nationals.
ISMU collaborates with government institutions at national and European level, local authorities and other decentralised institutions, universities, research centres, foundations, international agencies and diplomatic missions, NGOs, enterprises and trade associations.
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