General Information

Laws

Economic Migrants

Number of immigrants

Sources

Italy

General Information
The refugees coming to Italy flee from civil war and human rights abuses or seek for  improved economic circumstances. Most of the refugees use Italy as one station during their travel to Northern Europe, to countries like Great Britain or Germany. The majority of the immigrants come from Albania, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Iran or Iraq.

Laws
Aliens in Italy have to satisfy several conditions for entry (in accordance with art. 5 of the Schengen Convention). He or she must...

• arrive at an external border
• hold a valid passport or other equivalent travel documents (if he/she has, is allowed short visits (up to 90 days) for the purpose (in Italy) of "tourism", "business" or "official missions" whatever that can mean?!)
• hold ducuments which prove the purpose of envisaged visit and prove that he/she has sufficient financial means
• have not been reported as a person not to be permitted entry
• not be considered a threat to public order or national security
• hold a valid entry or transit visa

If any of these aboved mentioned requirements is not met, an alien may be refused entry.

They are given 15 days to leave the country before facing arrest. A lot of refugees come anyway  in the hope to travel forward out of Italy in the time it takes the Italian authorities to serve the expulsion papers. The government differentiates between political and economic refugees: political refugees are allowed to stay, economic migrants are not.
Italy got  under pressure by the European Union to tighten up the controls of the Italian coastline. But it nearly seems impossible to observe the whole expanse of the coastline which is about 7,600km (!) long. [have a look at Italy's map]

Economic Migrants
Despite of the refugees fleeing form life-threatening situations there is a huge amount of Albanians coming to Italy in order to earn (more) money. The Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Piero Fassino signed an agreement with Albanian government representatives to end a dispute over Albanian immigrants in Italy. Because of the fall of communism in 1991 a lot of Albanians tried to find work in Italy. 
But now the question raises why to stem the tide of refugees at all. Italy has the lowest birth rate in the European Union. There were only 9.05 births per 1,000 Italiens in 2001. Compared to 10.07 deaths per 1,000 Italiens in 2001, the population is only growing by 0.07% [2001]. So it is estimated that Italy needs at least 200,000 immigrants per year just to keep the status-quo! (detailed facts can be found at: http://www.ncbuy.com/reference/country/it-people.html )

Number of immigrants