An immigrant shows his residency papers delivered by Italian authorities
(ANSAmed) - ROME - The number of non-European Union immigrants present in Italy grew by 127,000 people between January 1 of this year and last, the Italian statistics agency Istat revealed on Tuesday.
The total number of non-EU immigrants legally residing in Italy on the first of this year was 3,764,236.
Moroccans were present in the largest number, with 513,374 citizens living in Italy. Albania came next with 497,761 people - nearly 20% of the population living in the tiny Adriatic nation.
There were 304,768 Chinese, 224,588 Ukrainians and 158,308 Philippinos.
The Chinese community was growing at the fastest clip, gaining nearly 10% in a year and adding more than 27,000 people to their ranks.
The number of Tunisians fell.
Women represent 49,3% of foreigners.
Long-term residents - foreigners with open-ended residency papers - are constantly on the rise from the 1.896.223 registered in 2012 to 2.045.662 in 2013, making up 54,3% of regular immigrants. The percentage of long-term residents is particularly high in regions in the Centre-North, in particular among Albanians, Tunisians, Moroccans and Egyptians.
Between 2011 and 2012 instead the number of non-EU citizens entering the country had significantly dropped. According to Istat's report, 263.968 new permits were issued in 2012, almost 27% less from the previous year. The drop in new arrivals affected 33% of men and 19.5% of women. New working permits dipped the most in that period - 43.1% less than in 2011 while those for families only dropped 17%.(ANSAmed).
