Undocumented Migrants and Underground Work

1. Undocumented Migrants and Underground Work Laboratorio Rosarno Politecnico di Milano, 12 November 2010

2. Immigrants in Italy Source: Istat

3. Irregular Migrants A migrant is irregular if he doesn’t get regular document that permit to live and work in a third country. We can call their also undocumented migrants.

4. How many irregular migrants are in Italy? Sources: Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Labour and ISMU

5. How do the irregular immigrants enter in Italy?

6. Who are the overstayers? The majority of irregular immigrants enter in Italy with a regular visa, to then stay on once it has run out. This category, called overstayers, (in France also distinguished between “faux étudiant, faux tourists”) represents the real weak point in the chain of control.

7. How do the overstayers enter in Italy?

8. Why do the irregular immigrants want to come in Italy? The pull factors Family and social networks Weakness of border checks Regularisations Underground Work

9. Transnational Theory Macro structures: include the political economy of the world market, interstate relationship, the laws, structures and practices established by the states of sending and receiving countries to control migration settlement. Micro structures: are the informal social networks developed by the migrants themselves.

10. The social networks “Migration decisions are not made by isolated individuals, but by families, households or even communities.”… “Family linkages often provide the financial, cultural and social capital which make migration possible, the irregular migration too.” We can call Autonomy of Migration “The age of Migration” by S. Castles and M. J. Miller http://www.age-of-migration.com/

11. Turkish immigrants in Germany (in thousands) Source: Statistischen Bundesamts Deutschland

12. Regularisations Regularisation can be classified on the basis of differing criteria: 1. The first is the political-juridical ratio of each regularisation. Regularisation can be divided in: A) pragmatic: that is to say, they take note of objective given data and ,B) humanitarian: based on merit evaluation of the conditions of the potential beneficiary; 2. The second criteria is that relative to the type of procedure that we can distinguish in A) extraordinary and collective or, B) punctual with permanent regularisation mechanisms based on the individual.

13. Regularisations in Italy In Italy the regularisations adopted have been 7 in 25 years (8 if we consider the Quota system decree of 2006 ) and are of very high numbers In Italy the choice of regularisation is linked also to the consolidated tradition of amnesty, that is to say a measure that nullifies sanctions or penalties (fiscal, building speculation,..etc..) Of the 4 million official immigrants present in Italy more than 50% entered as undocumented migrants

14. Extraordinary Regularisation in Italy Sources: Istat, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Labour

15. Underground Economy The main reason for such a wide presence of irregular migration is linked to the easy access to Italian territory even for irregular immigrants to work in the underground economy without being discovered. The countries of Southern Europe (Greece, Italy and Spain) are seen as States with the highest GDP produced from the underground economy. The data following slide shows a structural weakness of Italy in combating underground work as entire sectors of the economy such as agriculture, building trade and home help assistance (INPS 2008) survive thanks to underground work which often employs irregular and regular immigrants.

16. % of GDP produced from underground economy( in some OECD Countries 2006) Underground Economy Source: F. Schneider e A. Buehn

17. Undocumented Migrant Workers 2001 - 2009 (in thousands) Source: Istat

18. Irregular rates per unit work for different economic sectors 2001 - 2009 Sources: Istat, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Labour

19. Institutional inspection activity

20. Conclusions so that Rosarno riots won’t happen anymore Fighting the underground economy Different programs for recruitment of skilled anunskilled migrants Fewer regularisations and less amnesty More rights for Migrants and fighting criminality Less demagogic political speech

21. Bibliography M.C. Chiuri, N. Coniglio e G. Ferri, “L’esercito degli invisibili. Aspetti economici dell’immigrazione clandestina”, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2008.Annuari statistici del Ministero Affari Esteri, 2003 – 2008AA. VV., “Quindicesimo rapporto sulle Migrazioni 2009” a cura della Fondazione ISMU, Franco Angeli, Milano 2009.Ministero del Lavoro, della Salute e delle Politiche Sociali, “Rapporto annuale sull’attività di vigilanza in materia di lavoro e previdenziale”, anno 2007.S. Castles and M. J. Miller, “The age of Migration”, Palgrave macmillan, London, 2009ISTAT, Indagine conoscitiva su taluni fenomeni distorsivi del mercato del lavoro (lavoro nero, caporalato e sfruttamento della manodopera straniera), Roma, 15 aprile 2010 (http://www.istat.it/istat/audizioni/150410/Audizione.pdf)A. Leogrande, ”Uomini e caporali. Viaggio tra i nuovi schiavi nelle campagne del Sud”, Mondadori, Milano, 2008,G. Zucca, “Arginare i mille rivoli del Lavoro Nero”, www.immigrationflows.net

22. Contacts:Pietro Vallonewww.immigrationflows.netpietro.vallone@gmail.com