“Migrantes”: a Report about ‘Italians' Spread Around the Word

Christopher Columbus was the first man to migrate from Europe to America. He was from Genoa, Italy. Every year since 1892, the United States has celebrated this famous Italian explorer around October 12th, day in which a sailor on the Pinta sighted land for the first time after a ten weeks journey.


This celebration is a reason of enormous pride for the whole Italian/American community. Less than a week before this year’s Columbus Day holiday, the Catholic immigration organization “Migrantes” released a report stating that more people have emigrated from Italy than any other industrialized country over the last 150 years. It seems indeed that between 60 and 70 million people of Italian origin or with some connection to the country live in different parts of the world, creating a vast population of 'Italians' spread around the world. This community comprehends also 3.5 million Italians living abroad and 28 million Italians that left the country since 1861.


The majority of emigrants are from Italy's southern regions, where jobs are harder to find. Most Italians living abroad are resident in Europe, while slightly over a third have settled in the Americas. The most popular destination is Germany – where 16.2% of Italy's emigrants live – , followed by Argentina (14.1%) and Switzerland (13.9%). Over half Italian emigrants are unmarried, even if a quite high number have kids. About 18% are under the age of 18, while the same percentage is over the age of 65.


Italians abroad does not pay (Italian) taxes, but the money they send back home seems to generate indirect earnings of around 140 billion dollars every year. Since the 2006 election they have the right to vote for the Italian Parliament without leaving their country of residence.