In the Seventies Northern Italy was the final destination of fellow Italians from the poor South. Now the streets of Milan and Turin have become more and more cosmopolitan following the massive arrivals from Africa and Eastern Europe.

Fears about immigration have pushed Italians into the arms of right-wing parties. Mario Borghezio of the Lega Nord party has suggested the idea of night watches, the so-called "ronde", to monitor the activities of immigrants.

The state's ineffective response to illegal immigration has inflamed racist reactions. Until 1990 Italy had no specific entry regulation and border controls were minimal. While other European nations closed their doors to immigration, Italy adopted no specific measures. The country was already familiar with its "underground" economy. Immigrants started to arrive in the early 1980s and find their place in the black market labour. In 1986 the number of foreign workers was 500.000, out of a total population of 57 million Italians. In 1997 they were already a million and their number has kept growing year after year.

Now immigration has become a socially recognized phenomenon. Italians are still reluctant to the idea of a cosmopolitan society with people from different traditions and religions.

Registered immigrant workers are almost three millions. They come from a variety of places, including the Mediterranean basin and Asia. The recent immigration trend is that of Eastern Europe with a growing number of people from Romania, Ukraine and former Yugoslavia.

Among researchers there is a feeling that immigration can be a positive solution for a country where the birth rate is the lowest in Europe. In a recent interview for the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Franco Pavoncello, a professor of Political Science at John Cabott University in Rome, has explained that "the demand for foreign workers is very strong". "In Italy - says Pavoncello - the fertility rate has kept going down. They are forecasting that by the year 2040 if the trend continues, there will be one third less people in the country - only around 45 million Italians. Who is going to fuel the economy with manpower? And who is going to pay the pensions of the increasing number of old people?".