Last year, 449,118 residence permits were issued by the Italian government, a figure that had not been recorded for over 10 years. Work and study permits showed an increase in numbers. The latter recorded a peak of over 25 thousand units, a figure not seen since 2013. On the other hand, 54,780 minors under protection temporarily arrived in 2022. There was a 32.2% increase in permits for work released in 2022 versus 2021. There has also been recorded increase of 53.6% in new permits issued to citizens of Bangladesh Bangladesh surpasses Morocco by the number of new entrances.
The Ukrainian crisis, with the granting of almost 148 thousand new permits for temporary protection, contributed significantly to the increase. It was an extraordinary situation that marked the migratory scenarios throughout Europe, with the arrival of flows made up mainly of women and children.
As of 1 January 2023, there were over 3 million and 700 thousand non-EU citizens with a regular permit. The Ukrainian community, surpassing the Chinese one, ranks third in terms of number of presences after the Moroccan and Albanian ones.
Distribution of stay permits category-wise
In 2022, 449,118 new residence permits were issued in Italy, with an increase of 85.9% compared to the previous year; such a high number of entries during the year had not been recorded for over a year decade.
Permits for protection and asylum represent over 45% (approximately 202 thousand) of the new documents issued in the year (Figure 1). Such a high amount is partly explained by protection permits temporarily issued to Ukrainian citizens (about 148 thousand). However, it should be emphasized that not all Ukrainians have resorted to the “special” protection dedicated to them: over 5 thousand citizens of Ukraine obtained a permit for asylum requests or humanitarian reasons in 2022.
Excluding the “exceptionality” linked to the war in Ukraine, the overall total of permits issued amounts to 300,474, the highest figure of new entries recorded in the last 10 years (to find the highest annual amount of arrivals – equal to 361,690 – dates back to 2011). Not only that there are permits issued for reasons related to asylum and protection increased (+74.5%, without considering those issued to Ukrainian citizens), but permits issued for others have also increased reasons, such as work and study.
Above all, citizens of Bangladesh obtained permits to request asylum in 2022. For these two foreign communities, 9,616 and 8,396 were issued respectively residence documents for asylum and other forms of protection. Following at a distance, after the Ukrainians, are the Egyptians with almost 5 thousand permits for reasons related to asylum. In general, these four citizenships cover approximately 53% of permits issued for reasons of asylum or international protection.
Therefore, beyond the Ukrainian emergency, the arrival of people from the area continues to be recorded Indian sub-continent, while arrivals from Central Africa are more limited than in the past. There Nigerian community is the fifth in terms of several asylum seekers and people under protection with 3,576 releases. Followed by citizens from other conflict areas such as Georgia and Afghanistan. They appear, but later low in the ranking are some Latin American countries (El Salvador, Peru, and Colombia, among the main ones).
More and more often, minors are found in the flow of people. Sometimes they arrive together with their parents, sometimes alone. Unaccompanied minors are particularly vulnerable subjects who require adequate attention and specialized forms of hospitality. However, it is not always easy to identify this category of very young refugees from residence permit data. However, it can be estimated that there are 9 thousand minors who arrived alone in the country during 2022. Many are of Egyptian origin, followed by Ukrainians, Albanians, and citizens of Bangladesh. It should be noted that, for unaccompanied Ukrainian minors the average age is very low, less than 13 years, for young Albanians and Egyptians who arrive alone it is just under 17 years old while for children arriving from Bangladesh it is 17.8 years old.
Increase in Work and Family reunification visas
Between 2021 and 2022, new work permits increased by 32.2%. Work reasons represent 15% of the new permits issued in 2022. Such a number has not been recorded since 2013 high number of new entries for work activities. However, there are different ways in which citizens do not community members have obtained a work permit. In 72.6% of cases – almost 49 thousand permits – yes treaty of authorization was issued following the regularization provision issued in 2020 (DL 34/2020). The examination of the applications for emergence took place, in fact, very slowly so that numerous non-EU citizens saw their application accepted only in 2022.
To these must be added just under 10 thousand permits for employed work and approximately 3,200 permits seasonal. By integrating the 2022 data with that of 2021, it emerges that in the last two years, many more work permits than in the period between 2015 and 2020. There is therefore a signal of opening as regards entry into the country for work, as also demonstrated by the recent Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers containing the “Planning of flows of legal entry into Italy of foreign workers for the three years 2023-2025”, which provides for approximately 450 thousand entrances, approved in preliminary examination by the Council of Ministers. The region that recorded the highest number of new work permits was Lombardy, followed by Emilia Romagna, Veneto, and Campania. These four regions together cover more than 54% of new work permits.
The major countries of citizenship of the individuals they received residence permits for work activities are Albania (6,138 permits, 68.1% of which following the regularization measure; Morocco (5,881, 77.5% due to regularization); Ukraine (5,741, 81.9% for regularization); Pakistan (5,471, 88.3% for regularization); India (5,325, 60.9% per regularisation) and Georgia (5,171, 78.9% for regularisation). These communities cover in their own together 50% of entries for work together. Permits per family also recorded a slight increase (+2.7%), thus making the figure record of new releases from 2011 to today: over 126 thousand. The most frequent countries of citizenship among individuals who have obtained a permit for family reunification are Albania, Ukraine, and Bangladesh.
Also, in this case, the significant increase detected for Ukrainians (+50.6%) compared to 2021 is to be led back to the war crisis. Some of them, in fact, quickly had access to a permit for family – preferring it to that for temporary protection – since they had already had family members for some time present on Italian territory. There is, however, no shortage of examples of important foreign communities for which there is a decrease in family reunions, as in the case of Moroccan citizens and Chinese.
Increase in student visas issued
The new permits issued for study have also increased significantly (+42.6%). exceeded 25 thousand, a level that had not been reached since 2013. Compared to the total movement of new permits and documents granted to students represents 5.6%.
In 54.7% of cases, the residence permit for study is obtained by girls. The main countries of citizenship of young people who have decided to study in Italy in 2022 are China (4,075); Iran (3.125); Turkey (1,863); India (1,791); the United States (1,252) and the Russian Federation (1,157). Save that for India, among the countries mentioned above, women outnumber men.
Non-EU students arriving in Italy have an average age of 25.6 years and in 2022 they established mainly in Lombardy, which alone welcomed almost 26% of non-EU students, ahead of Lazio and Piedmont.
It clearly emerges that travel for study follows migratory paths sui generis concerning other forms of international migration. The main countries of citizenship do not follow those of the flows migrants in general. As an example, we can cite the Iranian community, for which the permits for the study represent more than 84% of all new documents released in 2022. Even for Kazakhstan, the issuing of 595 new study permits constitutes 81.5% of the total, which also makes this small community the ninth overall for arrivals for this particular reason.
According to Eurostat data, however, despite the significant increase in study permits noted in the latest year, Italy is behind other European countries. In France, there are almost 105 thousand of them, in Germany over 70 thousand, and in Spain almost 59 thousand. If we then consider the impact of study permits out of the total of those issued during 2022, Italy ranks only in the nineteenth position in the EU27.
Various structural factors weigh on Italy’s lack of attractiveness. Among these, is a language that is not easy to use and not very usable on the international side, even though educational institutions are growing and universities can offer courses in English, but also difficulties in terms of reception (yes think for example of the chronic shortage of accommodation for off-site students) and in terms of integration stable in the Italian labor market.
In this last regard, among the reasons that can attract foreign students there is the possibility of settling in Italy, converting the study permit into a work permit. The data, however, highlight that of the approximately 23 thousand non-EU citizens who had obtained a residence permit for study in 2015, less than 3 thousand still have a valid permit as of January 1, 2023 (about 13%). Among these, 49% have a long-term permit, 28% have a work permit and 17% are still studying.
Long-term residence permits are decreasing
Long-term residence permits, i.e. those issued to non-EU citizens who reside stably and continuously in Italy for at least 5 years, are 60% of all those currently valid. For many communities, the share of long-term residents exceeds 70% and for some (Ecuadorians, Serbs, and Macedonians) is close to 80%. For citizens of Moldova, the share is 85%. The case of the Kingdom is singular United with 93% long-term residents.
Even concerning the stability of the presence, territorial differences are evident. In the South, only 53.8% of non-EU citizens regularly present have a long-term permit against 59.5% from the North-West, 63% from the North-East and 62.1% from the Centre. The South is characterized by a higher incidence of permits related to asylum and international protection: they are 15.8% compared to 9.4% of the national average.
Between 2022 and 2023 there is a contraction in the share of long-term permits out of total permits valid permits: last year they represented approximately 66% of the total. This is partly due to growth in new permits expiring (also following the use of temporary protection) and in part to the maturity of the migratory phenomena in the country which bring many people of non-EU origin to acquire Italian citizenship. In fact, a large part of the decrease in absolute terms of permits long term is due to the strong causality between the possession of such a permit and the possibility of becoming an Italian citizen.
During 2022 there are just over 54 thousand and 300 permits with expiry that have been converted into long-term permits. In the same period of time, however, there were approximately 174 thousand acquisitions of citizenship that affected non-EU citizens who, having become Italian, no longer needed a residence permit. 11% and 10% of these new citizens are respectively Albanian and Moroccan origin.