Integration of migrants: longitudinal and cross-sectional approach

Cinzia Conti, Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT)
Eugenia Bellini, Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT)
Daniela Ghio, European Commission, EASO
Rottino Fabio Massimo, Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT)

Regulation (EC) No. 862/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics on migration and international protection was approved in 2007. The legislation has brought substantial changes, leading towards a harmonisation of migration statistics in the context of the European Union, and has stimulated discussion within individual countries aimed at improving the collection and processing of data on the presence of foreigners and on migratory movements. The decisions made in Italy to adapt the statistical system to the requirements of the Regulations have been geared towards better use of available administrative records, also through the integration of micro-data from various sources. The process has occurred gradually, thanks to increasingly close exchanges and communication between the two main bodies of data holders and producers of statistics on immigration: the Ministry of the Interior and Istat. To a certain extent, this process anticipated the more stringent indications of the Zaragoza Declaration (2010) on indicators of integration identify the proportion of long-term residents to total residents and the number of acquisitions in a given year compared to the total foreign population among the indicators to be measured. At the same time the availability of new micro-data sets (on individuals) and the possibility to carry out record linkage allow to calculate “traditional” cross-sectional measures of integration with a longitudinal approach. In the paper two examples are discussed: indicators on long-term residents and acquisition of citizenship. The paper underlines the different aspects that the longitudinal indicators can enlighten comparing with the cross-sectional ones.