Even during the crisis years, the number of immigrants who opened a business in Italy grew: in the twelve months of last year, the individual businesses opened by citizens born outside the European Union increased by almost 23 thousand units, bringing the total of these realities to exceed 350 thousand, 10,9% of all individual businesses operating in our country. Five years ago, at the end of 2010, there were 100.000 fewer. The figure assumes even greater significance considering that the overall balance of sole proprietorships last year was equal to -0,1%.
This was revealed by Unioncamere-InfoCamere on the basis of data from the Business Register of the Italian Chambers of Commerce.
The presence of small non-EU entrepreneurs is particularly significant in the artisan activities: today there are over 120 thousand, a third of all micro-enterprises of immigrants, with strong specializations in economic sectors such as business services (where 23% is extra -EU), trade (16,4%) and construction (15,2%).
The map of their presence in the area sees Tuscany, Lombardy, Liguria and Lazio in the first places (all with a representation of micro-enterprises of immigrants exceeding 15% of the total of individual regional enterprises), with Prato which, from the top of 40,9 .XNUMX% of sole proprietorships with non-EU passports, the virtual capital of immigrant entrepreneurship in Italy is confirmed.
“For foreigners who have come to Italy, opening a business is certainly a way to integrate into our economic and social system” – comments the President of Unioncamere, Ivan Lo Bello. “The massive migratory flows we are dealing with certainly require targeted reception policies. These, however, can be accompanied by low-cost integration tools and policies such as those to support the start-up of entrepreneurial activity. This is an area in which the Chambers of Commerce play an important role”.
