Internal Migration during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Italy: A First Assessment

Francesca Licari , Instituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT)
Frank Heins , Irpps-CNR
Cecilia Reynaud, Università Roma Tre

The contribution aims to assess the changes in migration intensity and patterns that occurred in Italy in 2020 and 2021, or more precisely, after the start of the pandemic and covering also the 3rd and 4th wave of the pandemic. Even if focussing on the aspects of internal migration, international migration will be considered. Preliminary data of the municipal population registers with information on nationality, sex and age will be used. Estimating changes in internal and international migration intensities for Italy and for selected areas (provinces) we intend to assess the effects of the pandemic. The areas will be selected according to the degree of exposition during the first wave of the pandemic, because this first wave was geographically focussed in some northern provinces. However, the second wave starting after the summer interested most of the national territory. In the past, abrupt changes in the number of internal and international migrants were often related to administrative or political measures and were usually temporary. The temporariness could be explained by the low level of internal migration in Italy which could hardly decrease further. So, our hypothesis is that also the observed decline of internal migration during the pandemic will be only temporary. Whereas an increase of internal migration flows towards rural areas will depend on the future possibilities of working from distance. Observed changes in internal and international migration during the pandemic could be attributed to delays and changes in migration behaviours and, to a minor degree, to the difficulties of the registration process during the lockdown.

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 Presented in Session P1. Postercafe