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CONSEU (Conferència de Nacions sense Estat
d'Europa) - VIth ASSEMBLYThomas Benedikter
Barcelona, September 29. 2005
INDEX
General overview | Some specific
features of the foreign immigration in South Tyrol | Impact on the local society | Some
conclusions
In South Tyrol, as in the rest of Italy, immigration from
third countries (not stemming from other provinces of Italy) has
significantly gained momentum since 1990. While in 1990 just
about 5.000 foreign nationals had their permanent residence in
South Tyrol (about 1% of the population which has reached 480.000
in 2005), the number of foreign nationals living in South Tyrol
at the end of 2004 crossed the mark of 22.000, equivalent to 4,7%
of the province's total population. Thus, the labour-motivated
immigration is a quite young phenomenon in this area, an
evolution which came not surprisingly given the fact that our
economy in terms of GDP and employment is steadily growing since
30 years, that means since the new autonomy statute came into
force in 1974.
From an economic perspective the South Tyrol autonomy is a
success story as still in the 70ies our province has been an
emigration province with thousands of young South Tyroleans
leaving for a job abroad. It should be mentioned that in the
period between the world wars and again in the 50ies South Tyrol
experienced decades of forced migration from Italy unleashed
first by the regime of Mussolini and later, after 1945, by
Italy's democratic governments with the same purpose, namely to
outnumber the German group in their own province and thus
establish a permanent Italian domination in South Tyrol. By this
way starting from a mere 3-4% share of the local population in
1910 the share of the Italian group on South Tyrol's population
reached its peak in 1961 with 34,3%, but soon after 1970 the
immigration from Italy came to a halt and due to the new autonomy
and demographic reasons this percentage is slowly decreasing (in
2001 about 26%).
The older generation of South Tyroleans still keeps a living
memory of those years of forced immigration, while the middle
aged people remember the emigration times of South Tyroleans of
the 50ies and 60ies. That's why the new immigration by some
section of the local society is still observed with a bit of
scepticism. But it has to be kept in mind that our neighbouring
regions North Tyrol and Salzburg have a foreign resident
population of more than 9% of the total population and
neighbouring Swiss canton Grischun even of 18%. In this light
South Tyrol is just recovering with a certain time lag an
evolution of economically induced immigration, according to its
steady and stable development of the labour market.
Since 1980 three phases of immigration to South Tyrol can be
observed. The first one was restricted mostly to EU-citizens, as
our province is also attracting many retired people from rich
regions in the North as their old age residence. The second one
has unfolded in the first half of the 90ies, fuelled by the wars
in the Balkans and by push factors from the Maghreb countries.
Finally the third one is evolving from 1995 to now as a phase of
stabilisation with a high rate of family reunifications. Nearly
half of the immigrants in South Tyrol today are women and about
20% minors, what shows that the immigration is shifting to a
phase of stabilisation. However South Tyrol regarding the share
of immigrants on the total figure of resident population is still
lagging behind not only to neighbour North Tyrol, but also to the
Trentino autonomous province.
Regarding the country of origin of the immigrants there is a
huge variety of countries, but roughly spoken, three are the
major areas of origins. In 2005 6.100 foreigner were citizens of
other EU-countries, 8.600 came from other European countries
outside the EU (mostly Eastern Europe) and just 7.400 from other
continents. In other terms more than 2/3 of the immigrants in
South Tyrol are Europeans. Among the developing countries South
Asia and North Africa are the most relevant areas. A particular
feature of the immigrant population is the large presence of
Pakistani. Only in three other regions of Italy higher absolute
numbers of Pakistani can be found: Lazio, Lombardy and
Emilia-Romagna, whereas this community is almost absent from
other Italian regions. One more important general feature is the
growing dominance of foreign nationals migrating from Eastern
Europe countries both from EU and non-EU member countries.
Finally the number of asylum seekers and refugees in South Tyrol
is irrelevant which is in line with Italy's general poor record
of persons with asylum status which is not exceeding 13.000.
Italy with Spain is at one of the last positions of the ranking
of European host countries for asylum seekers.
South Tyrol's immigrants or permanently resident foreign
nationals are, as usual in European immigration countries and
regions, quite a young population with An average age below that
of the local population. 70% of immigrants are employed, whereas
25% of the residence permits are issued for family reunion: a
demonstration that also at the local level immigration has become
a structural feature of our society, which requires appropriate
reception and integration policies. Another indicator for
stabilisation is the increasing number of foreign pupils in
schools (+ 18,5% in 2002). The fertility rate of foreigners is
more than double the rate of the resident citizens.
Regarding the areas of employment there are two branches of the
local economy which strongly rely on third country immigrants:
the agricultural sector limited to the harvest period from August
to October and the tourism sector (hotels, restaurants and other
tourism facilities) with a 8-9 month long season. Also low skill
jobs in the industry and the services sector count on increasing
numbers of immigrants. Generally speaking South Tyrol's labour
market is no exception in Italy's countrywide labour market with
regard to the way migrant labour force is absorbed: horizontal
and vertical segregation are the key issues. The first means the
confinement to certain employment areas and the latter means the
confinement of the labour force to the lowest level with no
chance of advancement. Hence, as in most EU-regions, new
immigrants are concentrated in bad jobs responding to the "3
D's": dirty, dangerous and demanding. Immigrants in an economy
with high share of seasonal jobs like South Tyrol are an ideal
flexibility buffer: economically convenient and personally
dependent due to the precarious work contracts with a limited
duration. The residence permits in Italy are linked to the
duration of the work contracts issued by the employers. According
to the strict laws adopted by the Berlusconi government in 2002,
unemployed foreign nationals may stay in Italy until the expiring
of their permit, but not longer than 6 month without any
employment.
South-Tyrol along with the neighbouring province of Trento is
countrywide in a leading position in terms of seasonal workers
(17.000 in 2003, 28% of the total number at the national level),
mostly employed in agriculture (more than 8,000 in the peak
harvesting season) and in the tourism sector. By annual average
figures there is very low number of registered unemployed: The
local employers' demand of foreign seasonal workers is still
growing since the local workers are trying to leave those jobs
and shift in stable and better paid jobs with a higher social
reputation.
On the level of social rights immigrants in South Tyrol enjoy
equal social and labour rights as EU-citizens. But immigrants,
especially when provided with seasonal permits, do not form a
stable community in the host country. Their relationship to South
Tyrol is mediated by their employers and limited to the duration
of the work. The form of accommodation inside the hostels or farm
houses is limiting their contacts with the local population. Thus
this group of immigrants do not form a separate social group
which is collectively articulating their rights or their cultural
identity in a strong manner.
In the field of social rights housing plays a key role in the
future integration of immigrants in the local society. The
immigrants access to houses, especially at reasonable prices,
depends very much on their social status and is conditioned by
ethnical, cultural and racial prejudices. In South Tyrol there is
a widespread abuse of the housing needs of migrant workers. Most
of them live in rented flats with substandard quality and high
monthly rents. Only 25% live in an accommodation provided by the
employer. There are many forms of overcrowding and exploitation
of foreigners. This precarious situation prevents many foreigners
from social integration, although they are urgently needed as
labour forces.
Regarding the political efforts to grant for the accommodation
of the immigrants there are not more than 500 beds in public
workers hostels in South Tyrol, far from meeting the real demand.
Access to public housing concerns a limited part of the immigrant
population. A large majority of immigrants do not even apply
since they would not have any real chance as the duration of
residence is one of the decisive criteria of assignment of
housing subsidies or publicly funded apartments. Actually out of
11.000 of such public apartments not even 100 are occupied by
foreign migrant families. On the other hand there is a sharply
increasing number of foreigners who apply for so called housing
rent grants due to the high average rent.
Housing for the time being is the major social problem of
immigrants in South Tyrol. Due to this fact even many of those
working in regular jobs and average wages can not afford to bring
in their families. The "boarding houses" as first reception
structures cannot host larger numbers of immigrants for a long
term permanence. The province of South Tyrol only recently has
decided to create new accommodation structures with a more long
term character like mini-apartments for singles (40% of the
immigrants in South Tyrol are single).
Regarding social security and assistance generally foreign
immigrants with a legal residence in South Tyrol, as provided by
international convention and EU-law, are put on an equal footing
with the resident citizens. South Tyrol has primary competence in
the field of social assistance, (as the minimum social income),
social housing, social services and a secondary competence in
health services. But poor immigrants can obtain social benefits
for emergency situations just for a maximum period of 2 month per
year and only in the case of special need. However foreigner are
protected from discrimination by the Testo Unico (law n.5/1998
and d.l. n.189/2002), which prohibits any discrimination in
employment, at the workplace, housing, education, social services
or by whoever offers goods and services accessible to the
public.
If the social integration of immigrants is the overall challenge
education is an utmost important issue. In the current school
year 2005-06 almost 2.000 pupils from third country families are
enrolled in the schools of the province of all levels and kinds.
South Tyrol's school system is divided by language, so the
immigrant families too have to choose one of the three existing
branches: about 59% of foreign children are enrolled in the
Italian school, 40% the German schools and 1% in the Ladin
schools. The proportion of foreign children is by far higher in
the Italian schools rather than in the German branch. This is due
to the fact that a high number of migrant families before
arriving in South Tyrol had spend some years in other parts of
Italy. On the other hand the growing number of foreign children
is compensating the decreasing number of children in the Italian
schools caused by the lower fertility rate of the Italian
group.
School is the best environment where integration can take place,
where foreign children and their families are included, where
they can mutually exchange cultural features. But only a minority
of foreign families maintain normal relationship with their
children's school. Immigrated parents are reluctant in contacts
with the schools since often they do not sufficiently know the
local languages, they feel the lack of education or have a fear
of interfering with teacher decisions to the detriment of their
children. During a research carried out by the Province of South
Tyrol in most foreign families, in addition to the family
languages, Italian is spoken or learnt as first "foreign
language". Thus it might not surprise that more immigrants
families enrol their children in the Italian branch rather than
in the German school branch.
A further problem related to education is the fact that one
quarter of foreign children have an insufficient knowledge and
one more quarter a not adequate knowledge of Italian. This brings
about a lower level of the more and more mixed urban schools with
Italian medium language. Scholastic failure among foreign
children is by far higher than among locals: in elementary
schools it is around 17% compared to a general average among
local children of 1%. By consequence some principals of Italian
schools in South Tyrol complained about the concentration of
foreign children in Italian schools.
On the other hand there are scores of new initiatives adopted by
schools in South Tyrol in meeting the challenge of inclusion and
integration to involve the families in co-operation with
volunteer associations, cultural mediators, who provide special
language courses for foreigners and many other facilities.
In 2006 the share of foreign nationals with a residence in
South Tyrol will reach 5% of the population, which is still well
below the general average rate of foreign immigrants in the EU.
In very general terms South Tyrol's positive economic development
offers employment opportunities to a growing number of foreign
nationals who may take up a seasonal or a long term job in the
province and thus settle down. The advantages are mutual: the
host society can benefit from the work of thousands of immigrants
keeping the pace of a steady growth of the regional GDP, the
income per capita and major tax revenues to the province. In
addition this ensures a more stable development of the social
security system in a society which grows older. Brief: South
Tyrol follows the path of many rich European regions whose wealth
is based also on the hard work of migrant workers.
On the other hand immigrants in a region like South Tyrol not
only can find abundant job opportunities as long as the labour
market is developing well, but also enjoy high standards of
social assistance and services provided by one of the most
efficient provincial administrations in whole Italy. Since a year
South Tyrol has entered the group of the 10 wealthiest regions of
the EU in terms of income per head. Thus immigrations is
improving the relative position of our economy and social system
and in the same time enhancing the general livelihood of the
national minorities. In a context of economic and social welfare
also the coexistence of the official ethnic groups is
facilitated. This can be considered a success of South Tyrol's
autonomous policies. On the opposite, emigration caused by
poverty, lack of jobs and bad administration of an autonomous
region, like it happened for many years to Sardinia and Sicily,
is definitely harming the issue of minority protection.
On the other hand, the flow of new immigrants is depending from
the regulations on the central government level which is linking
the quotas to the need of the private economy and the labour
market in general. Under the Italian immigration laws the right
to receive a residence permit is essentially linked to an
employment contract. Foreign immigrants with protracted
unemployment periods after a maximum period loose their residence
permit. By that mechanism foreigner are a kind of "buffer" and
flexibility-jolly on the labour market. In times of crisis, with
a certain delay, the Italian government could simply renounce on
renewing tens of thousands of 2-years-residence-permits in order
to reduce the number of migrants living in Italy. But we know
that also Italy in medium and long term desperately needs
migration for the sake of its own economy and welfare
system.
What about the political rights of foreigners in South Tyrol?
Foreigners, according to the current legal situation, have no
voting right neither to political nor to administrative
elections, albeit a more direct participation in public and
political life at local level would certainly enhance their
responsibility and promote their integration into the
host-society. In South Tyrol also Italian citizens can acquire
the active voting right only after 4 years of permanent residence
in the province. This rule was meant to protect the national
minorities by wanton or politically arranged demographic changes
caused by politically promoted migration as experienced in the
past.
However there are some political bodies on municipal level with
consultative status aimed to achieve some forms of political
involvement and institutional representation like the "consulta
degli stranieri". Italy has to come in line with several other
EU-member states which have already established the right to vote
in local elections.
What's about the right to residence and citizenship and its
impact on the local ethnic equilibrium? Actually the maximum
validity of a normal residence permit (permesso di soggiorno) is
limited to two years. This renders any longer working project and
permanence of foreign migrants uncertain and insecure. They are
not encouraged to make big efforts to integrate into the host
society. The entry of migrant workers for working purposes is
regulated by a national quota system, which is based on annual
quotas fixed by the Ministry of Home. Those quotas take also into
consideration the family reunions. The Italian right-wing
government recently is more and more restrictive on issuing
enough visa to foreign labour immigrants.
A second kind of residence permit is the long term residence
permit (carta di soggiorno) which can be applied for after 6
years of lawful residence. For that purpose foreigners must have
a legal entitlement (work contact, study place) and sufficient
means of sustenance. With such a residence permit a foreigner can
enter the national territory without a visa. He has access to all
rights except those reserved for citizens like voting rights and
public jobs.
The right obtain the Italian citizenship most frequently is
based on:
- The ordinary naturalisation procedure which requires a legal
residence for at least 10 years.
- The naturalisation by marriage with Italian citizen and legal
residence of 6 month in Italy or 3 years of marriage regardless
of residence.
There are some more forms of obtaining citizenship which by
numbers are less important. Actually the majority of foreigners
obtain an Italian citizenship by marriage. In the other cases a
foreigners has to prove some other requirements like the lack of
criminal record, fulfilment of fiscal obligations, sufficient
economic means, language knowledge. In South Tyrol the number of
citizenships released to foreign migrants is still very low. In
Italy generally it is forecasted that, like in other EU-member
countries, the applications for naturalisation will steadily grow
along with the stabilisation of the immigration. South Tyrol has
no competences in limiting the granting of citizenships or the
access to the province, and thus has no direct influence on the
influx of foreigners willing to take up residence in the
province. However, it is likely that the development in the
decisive markets (labour, housing) will automatically regulate
the influx preventing any creation of a group of marginalized,
unemployed, poor migrant families with a potential of social and
political conflict.
South Tyrol has no immediate primary power on matters related to
immigration, but its powers are focused on economic policies,
social services, health service, infrastructures, housing, labour
market management, education. Up to now the provincial government
has been under pressure and criticism not because allowing a too
big influx of migrants, but when it ventured not to acquire
enough permits for seasonal migrant workers out of the annual
quotas fixed by the central government in Rome, but certainly not
because losing the control over the influx of migrants. There are
basically two markets steering the evolution of the immigration:
on the one hand the labour market with a strong emphasis on
seasonal jobs in tourism and agriculture; on the other hand the
housing sector. The enormously high level of prices of real
estates and rents prevent a large influx of migrant workers,
since they could simply not afford to pay the living costs.
However it would be discussed whether a really autonomous region
shouldn't be vested with some stronger legal possibilities to
control immigration as a kind of last resort in times of economic
crises.
If we consider the preservation of the cultural identity of a
national minority as the core issue of building up an autonomy
system in Europe, and in second place to maintain a peaceful and
co-operative equilibrium between different ethnic communities in
the framework of one shared autonomy system, the South Tyrolean
model of blending integration with segregation up to now has not
been questioned by the new immigration. In South Tyrol the
Italian group, which had 26% of the population in 2005 is slowly
decreasing, whereas the Germans and Ladins are keeping there
population share stable. Apparently and just by numbers the
foreign immigrants are replacing the drop of the Italian
residents, whose number is decreasing due to demographic factors.
There is no evidence in any field that foreign immigration could
be a threat to the protection of the historical national
minorities, while it is certainly an opportunity to link up with
a creative process of modernisation of its society.
On a political level this slow shifting to a major population
share of immigrants hasn't had any impact on political balances
since foreign nationals (exception: EU-citizens) have no voting
rights. But even when in the next future immigrants would get a
voting right in local administrative elections (Provincial
Parliament excluded) they are unlikely to shake the equilibrium
of South Tyrol's three official ethnic groups. Their votes rather
will, as many experiences in other EU regions clearly show,
distribute in a pluralistic way on various parties and add to the
efforts to integrate in the local society.
Enjoying equal rights regarding all social services and subsidies
the immigrants by tendency will claim a growing share of those
resources, but not at detriment of one or the other official
groups, as the services are offered and funded on other criteria
then ethnical redistribution. In addition there are two main
pillars of the South Tyrol's autonomy system which operate as a
sort of protection of the locally available public resources:
first, the complete system of bilingualism in all public spheres
and second the ethnic proportionality rule in force for all jobs
in the public sector. How could the immigration affect those
fundamental rules? Regarding the use of official languages the
presence of immigrants even in a much more significant number
would not alter anything in the existing juridical normative
setting.
But with regard to the jobs in the public sector (which includes
the local - municipalities, province, region, others - and the
state administration. The latter recently is covering not more
than 18% of the public sector jobs) there is one more barrier for
a foreign immigrant to be overcome: citizenship. At least the
core sector of the administration is still reserved to citizens.
Thus, foreign nationals of Non-EU-countries can be hired for some
sectors as health assistance or state railway company also on the
basis of special working contract, but not for the administration
as such. Even if more and more immigrants become citizens there
are the additional barriers of the professional skills and
education level and the requirement of bilingualism. It will be
extremely difficult for the huge majority of foreigners to
compete with local applicants for public jobs on those fields, as
both main official languages have to be mastered in spoken and
written form. Some observers comment that in the future their
will be a heavy dispute about the EU-compatibility of the
proportionality principle under the principle of equality,
whereas Brussels has never contested the bilingualism rules
(except the way of obtaining the language exams
certificates).
The major impact on the relative situation of the ethnic groups
and by that on the quality of the protection of the national
minorities living in South Tyrol will be the education in South
Tyrol's school system. As experienced in some other immigration
countries with decade old immigration as Austria, Switzerland and
Germany the quality of the education can be affected when the
classes get linguistically very mixed and when the share of
immigrants with different original cultures and languages
exceeding certain levels. South Tyrol (and in practice in the
Ladin and German speaking school) is still far away from that
levels and much depends on the huge range of integration and
promotion measures which are applied inside the didactical and
social activities. However it has to be observed learning from
the experiences gained in other countries.
Regarding immigration South Tyrol is slowly, but steadily
catching up to the quantitetive levels of its neighbouring
regions in the North (North Tyrol, Salzburg) and in the West
(Switzerland, Canton Grischun, Luxembourg, Catalunya), featuring
two major aspects:
- a strongly seasonal character and thus a high flexibility and a
limited duration of a major share of the immigrants;
- a growing importance of the Eastern Europeans immigrants, both
from new EU-member countries and non EU countries.
Immigration to South Tyrol started lately around 1990 and is now
one of the major opportunities for economic growth, but also for
cultural enrichment and opening up to the "global village".
Immigration will add to ensure a steady positive development of
South Tyrol's economy and social security system. Despite the
generally positive impact of immigration there are two major
issues raised by this new immigration:
- who is politically controlling the influx (e.g. which criteria
are applied to control the flows of migrants and by whom)?
- who bears the responsibility of the integration efforts?
In South Tyrol immigration is propelled by the demand on the
labour market, thus by economic growth, which can only partially
be influenced by the autonomous government of the province. The
immediate powers to regulate the immigration lies completely in
the hands of the central government.
On the other hand the efforts for the integration of the
immigrants into the local society is up to the local
administration with his powers in the field of education, health
care, housing and social assistance. Therefore there is a need to
strengthen the powers of the autonomous regions in the field of
migration policies, although the overall tendency inside the EU
is to build up a ever more co-ordinated system of immigration on
a European basis ensuring also full mobility to third country
nationals. To tackle the challenge of integration in a
multilingual environment the autonomous regions with ethnic or
national minorities need specific legal, financial and political
means.
Thomas Benedikter, European Academy of Bozen (29-9-2005)