"In Italy, between who has the right to enter. We do not need migrants to repopulate the villages: let the Italians pay less taxes and you will see how they will repopulate these small towns", launched Sunday Matteo again Salvini, head of the Sovereignty League, in front of 100,000 activists in the north of the country.

Former interior minister prosecuted for blocking NGO ships rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean, he thus takes up one of the favorite anthems of the far right in Italy, a country where the immigrant workforce nevertheless proves to be essential to keep the third largest economy in the euro zone running.

Despite this observation, both Matteo Salvini and his ally in the legislative elections of September 25, Giorgia Meloni, head of Fratelli d'Italia (FDI), hammered home during the campaign their desire to padlock the peninsula in the face of the arrival of migrants.

For his first electoral trip, Matteo Salvini went to the small island of Lampedusa in early August, which records thousands of arrivals by boat from Africa each year.

"Lampedusa cannot be the refugee camp of Europe," he proclaimed on the spot.

"The political debate associates immigrants with landings", creating "the idea of ​​enormous flows (...) while the actual number of immigrants has been stable for ten years in Italy", analyzes Maurizio Ambrosini, specialist in the sociology of migrations at the University of Milan, interviewed by AFP.

As for Giorgia Meloni, she did not hesitate to exploit a rape committed at the end of August in Plaisance (north) by an asylum seeker by posting it on social networks, arousing indignation on the left and in the center.

By positioning themselves in this way, the two leaders are in tune with a large majority of Italians, 77% of whom believe that the level of immigration is "too high", according to a YouGov poll carried out in December for several European newspapers including the Italian daily La Repubblica.

A figure ten points higher than the European average.

At the top of concerns linked to immigration among Italians is the fear of an increase in crime (53%), particularly present among FDI (76%) and League (67%) voters.

#photo1

"Campaign Slogans"

The Democratic Party (PD, left) and the center "see immigrants as a resource for the Italian economy", but they have "difficulty making this understood by their own voters, especially since it is not a popular subject, while it is easier to have a discourse of exclusion and hostility, immediately understandable", laments Professor Ambrosini.

#photo2

Migrants in fact represent a potential lifeline for Italy, which could lose more than 20% of its population in 50 years, going from 59.6 million inhabitants in 2020 to 47.6 million in 2070, according to projections from the national institute of statistics (Istat).

This decline is accompanied by a general aging, due to the fall in births and the increase in life expectancy in the country, nicknamed the Japan of Europe.

In a report published in 2021, Istat warns against the "consequences (of this development, editor's note) on the labor market" and "the pressure that the country will have to face" to finance its pensions and its health system.

However, the labor market is already making massive use of the immigrant population, particularly for low-skilled jobs in the agricultural sector, construction, home help and the hotel and catering industry.

Numbering 2.5 million, immigrants in a regular situation represent more than 10% of the workforce, not counting illegal immigration.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, this dependence on foreign labor came to light: faced with the danger of seeing their crops rot on their feet, entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector had to charter planes to bring in their seasonal workers. from Romania or Morocco.

At the time, a winemaker from the north, Martin Foradori Hofstatter, explained to AFPTV: "In theory, I could also have found workers here in Italy, but now the Italians no longer want to work in the fields or in The vineyards".

"They disappear after a few days of work..." he added, annoyed.

As Professor Ambrosini summarizes, achieving a balance between humanitarian reception, the interests of the country and the reception of immigrant workers are “complex issues that do not lend themselves to the simplifications of electoral campaign slogans”.

© 2022 AFP