The number of migrants and
refugees fleeing to the coasts of Italy has tripled in one year,
but they should be seen as a resource not a burden, a study by
the Venice-based Leone Moressa Foundation think tank said
Friday.
Some 118,000 people have made the perilous Mediterranean
crossing so far this year, triple those that arrived in 2013 and
double the number of migrants and refugees after the Arab Spring
uprisings of 2011.
However, these are also the people who are now paying taxes
and running small businesses, the study showed.
Foreign-born taxpayers in 2013 paid a total of 6.7 billion
euros in taxes into State coffers, or 4.4% of the national
personal income tax take, the Foundation study showed.
"There are more than two million foreign-born taxpayers,
and the numbers have been growing since 2008," the study said.
As well, fewer foreign-born workers are sending remittances
home. That number totaled 5.5 billion euros in 2013, down from
7.5 billion in 2011.
In addition, foreign-born entrepreneurs are running 497,080
businesses, or 8.2% of the six million companies operating in
Italy, according to the study.
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