The issue of immigrants in Italy: a rational model of immigration management by Italian municipalities

Marco Baudino

doi:10.1186/s40176-017-0105-3

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the increasing issue of overcongestion affecting the immigration hosting facilities of many Italian municipalities, as well as the heterogeneity in immigration regulatory behavior emerging among the latter. Since 2014, the immigration rate in Italy has tripled and the redistribution process of immigrants among municipalities has increased in a sustained manner. Municipalities receive financial subsidies from the central government for hosting immigrants; at the same time, many of them have been experiencing a series of rigidities in the form of complaints by both firms and local residents when having to modify their desired rate of immigrant arrivals. I introduce an intertemporal dynamic framework where a municipal authority rationally maximizes its utility from allowing immigrants to relocate to its jurisdiction, while considering the disutility cost of rigidities and the negative repercussions of having a congestion level of its hosting facilities different from the optimal one. From the model, two major findings emerge. Firstly, the optimal congestion level for a municipality always corresponds to a situation of overcongestion. Secondly, even though the level of rigidities does not affect the steady-state level, it does affect the process of convergence towards it, resulting in either monotonic or oscillating paths of convergence.

Highlights

The immigration phenomenon in Europe has started to increase dramatically since the beginning of the new century
Despite all the countermeasures adopted by the E.U. to cope effectively with immigration, the burden of asylum seekers is not shared in an equal way among member states, with Italy remaining the member country bearing the greatest burden; first of all, a proper reform of the Dublin treaty has not yet been accomplished (BBC 2016); the plan of quotas to redistribute asylum seekers between member states approved by the European Commission in 2015 has met scarce implementation, since many E.U. countries have strongly opposed the plan and refused to receive their quotas of immigrants (Daily Express 2016)
The massive immigration phenomenon which is affecting Europe nowadays represents a main issue on the agenda of European policymakers, especially in light of the financial costs associated to it and the fears and concerns raised among the citizens of the European

Summary

Introduction

The immigration phenomenon in Europe has started to increase dramatically since the beginning of the new century. Since 2014, the European Union (E.U.) has witnessed a dramatic increase in the arrivals of immigrants asking for political asylum. Due to their geographical location, Italy and Greece have been the two E.U. member states which have been receiving the highest number of immigrants. The number of immigrants entering the Italian territory switched from 42,925 in 2013 to 153,842 in 2015 and 181,436 in 2016 (Ministry of Interior 2016; UNHCR 2016) To face this emergency, the European Union has increased funding for border patrol operations in the Mediterranean and elaborated plans to combat the smuggling of immigrants (the “Operation Sophia”).

Objectives

Findings

Conclusion