Immigration diversity and regional economic growth

Abstract

The present paper empirically examines the impact of international immigration on the growth of Italian provinces over the period 2003–2017 by analysing the impact of two main components of international immigration: the share and the diversity of immigrants. The main findings reveal that increases in birthplace fractionalisation and in the share of immigration significantly fostered output per capita. Moreover, we investigate whether the economic effects of these two dimensions of international immigration differ across Centre-North and South provinces. The analyses indicate that in the high-income Central-Northern provinces, both dimensions of immigration lead to benefits in terms of economic growth, while in the South, where there is still a lower socio-economic and institutional level of development, only the size effect related to the share of immigration seems to have growth-enhancing effects. In contexts characterised by a strong internal dualism, such findings are especially relevant as they give evidence of self-reinforcing dynamics, which contribute to further widening internal disparities.