18 November 2007

Survey on Immigration

I’m publishing a survey on Immigration in Italy that was carried out by ISPO and presented at Vasto during the national meeting of Italia dei Valori.
The survey is explained in the video of professor Renato Mannheimer, the director of the Istituto di Studi sulla Pubblica Opinione.

Text:
As always in surveys, there’s talk of perceived insecurity and not real insecurity, and often perceived insecurity is higher than real insecurity. I would like to tell you about the general attitude of the Italians in relation to the phenomenon of immigration.
We have the good fortune to have data that can be compared over time, resulting from the survey done in 1999 with that done in 2007. Basically, the percentage of people who say that immigrants manage to integrate has gone down, while the number of those saying that they do integrate has gone up and has reached 45%, but that they are a bit closed in on themselves. It’s as though we Italains, have the idea that most immigrants make up a world of their own, that the process of integration does not work and creates dangers. This is a widespread social perception which is a cause for worry.
We see immigrants as a closed group, and our attitude in relation to the phenomenon of immigration is one of suspicion in which a significant proportion (31%) of Italians thinks that it is an inevitable phenomenon but a larger proportion (39%) thinks that it is a phenomenon that should be stopped. Five years ago, this same percentage was 24% and thus it has gone up over time.
Here’s there’s no reference to laws. Few Italians understand well how the various mechanisms work or are familiar with the Bossi-Fini mechanisms. The idea is that this phenomenon is scary, and thus a higher percentage, today the relative majority, say that the phenomenon must be stopped. Not an absolute majority, but 40% represents a good part of the population. It is a part that goes across the board. Within this 40% there are people on the Left and on the Right, with a leaning towards, but not totally, people who sympathise with the Centre Right. Then there are a lot of people who do not have sympathies at all, who are not interested in politics but who are fearful of the phenomenon of immigration.
If we have to do a summary of the attitudes towards foreigners who are immigrants, we find that there is one Italian in four, 25% who expresses a high level of fear. Apart from this 25% there’s another 16% who have a high to medium level of fear, which when added on means that we have 40% of the Italians who are fearful of the phenomenon. Thus there is a fear of the phenomenon that we cannot hide and that we need to do something about. To intervene well, we need to discuss the reasons.
There has been a lot of discussion between the relationship of criminality and immigration. This is a relationship that on one side is objective and on another side is subjective. It is objective because very often those who arrive are in disadvantageous and difficult situations, when they have not directly premeditated a criminal intention and it is easier for them to turn to criminal activity. Then for an objective position, the prison population has a very high proportion of immigrants and many crimes, often of a certain type, are committed by immigrants.
However there is also a subjective perception, that often does not coincide with the objective one. Some people maintain that immigrants from outside the European Union make life in our cities less safe. Others say this is not true. There’s 38% (that is always related to that 40% who are fearful) in agreement: our cities are less safe. Among these there are more who live in the North East, more among the housewives, who are not a category that is most active, but a category that is more isolated with less access to information and there are more, with an absolute majority, among the voters of the Centre Right. But I repeat, those that have this opinion are not only on the Centre Right. It is an opinion that goes across the board. This shows us how there is a strong relationship between the subjective perception that criminality is associated with immigration. Then we can discuss to what extent it is less than people perceive it to be.
However, I would like to add that immigration evokes other issues, about conflict and about worries. For example, to a lower but still significant extent, there’s agreement around the idea that immigrants take away work from Italains. The fact has been noted that immigrants at least do the work that the Italians don’t want to do or have the possibility not to do any longer. An even lower percentage say they do not trust immigrants, but the absolute majority don’t say that it is a difficulty, they say that it could be.
I would like to say that the problem is of importance, even though it is not considered to be a priority and of great importance as it was in 2001, and that the social fear of the phenomenon of immigration is widespread. We can estimate that those who have a strong feeling, who see immigrants as a threat, as between 30 and 40% of the Italians. It’s thought that these things must be resolved by the work of each one, by the capacity for understanding of each one, but especially by the public authority of the Government with ad hoc laws. Until today, legislation on immigration and criminality is at the same time not well known but anyway considered to be insufficient by this 40% who are fearful.”

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Society