Distribution of immigrants in Italy 2022, by region

As of December 2022, Lombardy was the region in Italy hosting the largest share of immigrants (11 percent), followed by Emilia-Romagna, and Sicily. These regions are also among the Italian regions with the highest number of inhabitants. For instance, Lombardy has some ten million inhabitants (approximately one sixth of the total Italian population) and was housing ten thousand immigrants.

The Mediterranean route to Europe

  In 2020, over eight hundred migrants died or went missing in the Italian Central Mediterranean Sea in the attempt to reach Europe. In 2020, 34 thousand people arrived on the Italian shores, while over 11 thousand people reached Italy in 2019. Overall, the number of migrants decreased over the last years. However, the death and missing cases did not drop in proportion to the number of people who reached the coast.

Racism on the rise in Italy

  Even if the number of migrants arriving in Italy dropped in the last years, race-related violence was on the rise. Among others, the cases of racial physical violence increased, in particular between 2016 and 2018. Over these three years, the cases of body violence ranged from 24 to 127 attacks. Similarly, insults, threats and harassments became more widespread. Between 2017 and 2019, the cases grew from 88 to 206, while only in the first three months of 2020 there were 53 racist insults, threats and harassments.