Integration into the education system
The inclusion of non-Italian students into the education system is at the centre of social policy debate in recent years, mainly due to the fact that the number of foreign students in compulsory education is steadily increasing. Data on education shows that in the School Year (S.Y.) 2010/2011 in the Italian School System there were 711,064 students without Italian citizenship (7.9% of the total student population in Italy). The number of non-Italian students increased by 5.4% over the previous S.Y. In comparison to the years before, this increase was lower than that which occurred in the school years 2009/2010 (+7% over previous S.Y. 2008/2009) and 2008/2009 (+9.6% over S.Y. 2007/2008). This increase is mainly due to a growing number of second-generation immigrants - non-nationals born and raised in Italy - entering the Italian school system.
Currently, primary schools hold the biggest share of non-Italian students with 254,644 admissions (9% of all children enrolled in Primary School are non-nationals). However, the most significant increase in non-Italian students the last decade was registered by Upper Secondary Schools, although at this school level the incidence of non-Italians on the total of students is still quite low (5.8%).
Italians and foreign students show differences in the type of Upper Secondary Schools they chose to go to: while non-Italian students are concentrated in "Istituti Professionali" (Vocational Institutes) (40.4%) and in "Istituti Tecnici" (Technical Institutes) (38%), and only to a lower extent in "Licei" (High Schools/Grammar Schools) (18.7 %), Italian students most commonly prefer "Licei" (43.9%) and "Istituti Tecnici" (33.2%) and, to a lesser extent, "Istituti Professionali" (19.2%). There is also a significant difference in school performance between Italian and foreign students, especially at the Upper Secondary School level: in the S.Y. 2009/2010, about 30% of non-Italian students were not promoted to the next S.Y. (about twice the rate recorded among Italian students) and thus had to repeat one year in order to improve their grades.
Labor market integration
Another key indicator of integration into society is job placement: the employment rate of foreigners in Italy is, in fact, higher than that of Italians (in 2010 it was 67.0% compared to 60.6% among Italians). However, the unemployment rate among foreign residents is higher than that of Italians (11.6% and 8.1%, respectively). This is partly due to the fact that foreigners are concentrated in low-skilled job positions, the ones most affected by the current economic crisis.
Social rights and political participation
Italy lacks a systematic and coherent integration policy, though there are numerous laws regulating the various areas of social integration of migrants. Insufficient long-term political planning has resulted, up to now, in "emergency" reactions to the needs associated with the phenomenon of migration, mostly limited to the sphere of social policies. Immigrants have been granted social rights (especially regarding employment, health and education) while recognition of political rights lags behind.
Weaknesses of Italy’s integration policy and current developments
Weaknesses of Italy's integration policy are especially due to the ineffective and inhomogeneous implementation of actual policy. Decentralization and different socio-economic conditions in the various regions of Italy lead to an unequal treatment of the immigrant population, some regions providing more opportunities and rights to immigrants than others. In general, the implementation of immigrant integration policies is more effective in the North of the country, where social, welfare and health services are more efficient, than in the South, where there is more competition with the local population for access to resources and services, and it is more difficult to find work. Also, the recent economic recession has an impact on immigrant integration policies because it erodes the social sector and therefore the backbone of such policies. Policy gaps and lacking implementation is oftentimes substituted by religious institutions, trade unions and non-profit organizations which provide support for immigrants in situations such as their initial reception or job placement. Integration thus takes place on an informal level, through mediation from voluntary associations, the actions of ethnic networks and through the workplace. Good practices, especially at the local level, play a much more important role in integrating immigrants than official policies do.
The Security Act 94 of 2009 has brought about conditions that are slightly less favorable to integration since they declare illegal migration a crime and clamp down on conditions for family reunification which is currently only possible if the immigrant who wants to bring his family to Italy can ensure their subsistence and if Italian authorities have verified that housing conditions meet sanitary requirements. EU citizens are exempt from these rules. By D.P.R.