Migrant-run businesses rise by 42.7% between 2011 and 2022

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 12 - The number of businesses in Italy run by migrants rose by 42.7% between 2011 and 2022 to a total of 647,797, according to the report 'Immigration and Entrepreneurship in Italy and Europe' produced by Idos and Cna and released on Tuesday. The number of businesses run by Italians fell by 5% over the same period, the report added.
    At the end of 2022 migrant-run businesses represented 10.8% of the total, up from 2011 in 2011.
    Some 77.3% of migrant-run businesses are located in the centre and north, with the greatest numbers in absolute terms based in Lazio and Lombardy.
    The vast majority (74.1%) of migrant-run businesses are one-person companies, although the report also noted a an increase in capital companies over the years.
    These now represent 18.4% of the total.
    Some 59% of migrant-run businesses operate in the service sector, with retail accounting for 31.8% of service activities and construction for 23.9%.
    Some 82% of migrant business owners are of non-EU origin, with a marked predominance of Moroccans (63,000) and Chinese (52,000).
    The report said migrant women are "a significant and growing component of entrepreneurship, representing 24.6% of the total".
    They mainly operate in the service sector.
    Lastly, 75.8% of migrant entrepreneurs are under 50 years of age. "Our work shows clearly the considerable advantage for Italy in promoting and making the system of migrant businesses in the country as solid as possible, insofar as they constitute a 'physiological' bridge-network between the Italian economy and market and the countries and regions of origin of migrant entrepreneurs," said Idos president Luca Di Sciullo.
    The system of migrant-run businesses in Italy has shown "good resilience even in periods of global crisis" and would "give strategic international scope to a domestic system that is still extremely closed, provincial and weak", he added. (ANSA).