In the year of the pandemic, the entry of non-EU citizens into Italy collapsed
.
In 2020, approximately 106,503 new residence permits were issued to non-EU citizens, the lowest number in the last 10 years, almost 40% less than those issued in 2019. Above all, the new permits granted for study fell (-58 , 1% compared to the previous year) and asylum permits (-51%).
Istat notes this in the report "Non-EU citizens in Italy. Years 2020-2021".
Between 2018 and 2019, before the pandemic, the decrease in new permits issued was 26.8%, but the limitation of travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic - according to Istat - led to a further significant decrease; to this it must be added that the pandemic also entailed a delay in the processing of the files which could have contributed to the low number of permits granted. In the second half of 2020, in fact,
the Ministry of the Interior recorded a significant increase in landings on the Italian coasts which only partially translated into an increase in residence permits issued, probably due to the delay in handling the paperwork.
. Also the examination of the requests for regularization made according to article 103 of Legislative Decree 34/2020 was slower than what happened for the previous regularizations (very few cases examined by December 2020) and it is likely that the flows of 2021 will be affected by the regularization procedure. In the general decline in admissions, some countries of citizenship recorded particularly evident decreases: this is the case of the United States (-51.0%), China (-46.8%) and Ukraine (-46.4%). For Nigeria (-24.9%) and Pakistan (-29.3%) the reductions in flows were more contained.
In Italy there are fewer foreigners and more 'new Italians'
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Despite the pandemic, between 2019 and 2020, foreigners who have acquired citizenship are 131,803 (+ 4.1% compared to 2019);
approximately 90% (just under 119 thousand) were previously non-EU citizens.
Istat notes this in the report "Non-EU citizens in Italy. Years 2020-2021".
The increase is entirely attributable to the growth in proceedings concerning men (+ 11.6%) while the female component is down (-3%) also due to the non-negligible decrease in acquisition proceedings for marriage (-16.5% ).