Italy, the economy stalling but remittances skyrocketing

by Guido Bolaffi - 2012.12.17

In Italy, while economy shatters, emigrant's remittances fly, according to the latest figures published by Eurostat this week. In 2011, in Italy, the outflow workers' remittances exceeded 19%, confronted with a European average increase by 2% than in 2010. Thereby increasing money supply from 6.5 to 7.4 billion euro. Such figures lead us to meditate. Firstly, because the amount of money transferred from families to "newcomers" is such to place Italy at the second rank among the EU27 Member States, after France. Far from countries with an immigration history much older than ours.



In Germany, for instance, in the same period of time, remittances increase did not exceed 8%. And if we try to identify not only the amount of money flows but also their direction, we find out that Italy is no longer ranked second, but first. A huge part of this money (6.1 out of 4.4 bln euro) does not end up, as in most cases, in Eastern Europe poor countries, as in more remote areas around the globe. And it is not all, as we should understand why the remittances outflow trend – increased by more than 1000% in little more than a decade – is positive when the economy is deeply in the red. An absolute record for the industrialized West that would worry even the most hardened speculators.



To tell the truth, in Italy like elsewhere, economy trends influence relatively remittances', which account for a minimum share of emigrates' revenue. Emigrates do not touch their revenue, even if they are obliged from the circumstances to tighten their belt. Moreover, one should consider that money transfers come from members of the oldest ethnic communities. For this reason, the drastic drop in new arrivals in the last 12/24 months, played only a marginal influence on the degree of money flows towards their country of origin. That's all for similarities between Italy and the rest of the world, but not for Italy alone. Our record figures are merely and simply the fruits of a senseless immigration politics lasting for over twenty years. Made of continuous, and countless regularisations and turned into the big ally of one of the oldest country evils: large-scale undeclared employment.