Small businesses started by immigrants are growing. In fact, there are around 110 small business current accounts in the name of foreign citizens who started a business in 2014, up by around 10% compared to the previous year. This was revealed by the report of the National Observatory on the Financial Inclusion of Migrants, managed by CeSPI, the Center for International Policy Studies, in collaboration with Abi and financed by the Ministry of the Interior and the European Commission, according to which the growth trend was held constant between 2010 and 2014.
The report – partly anticipated in the latest Immigration Statistical Dossier 2015 of the IDOS Study and Research Center – will be presented at the next CSR Forum 2015 which will be held on 1 and 2 December at Palazzo Altieri in Rome. The two-day event, organized by the Banking Association to explore the issues of social responsibility, will also be an opportunity to analyse, with all the main operators in the sector, the migratory phenomenon in Italy, with particular attention to the role of banks in the inclusion process financial and support to immigrant families and small entrepreneurs. The latter represent about 8,6% of the Italian production system and are mainly responsible for the positive balance between businesses opened and businesses closed in 2014.
Migrants and micro-enterprises: the identikit of the small businesses of the new Italians
According to the survey developed by the Observatory, the companies managed by immigrant entrepreneurs are above all micro-enterprises that deal with professional or craft activities. They are registered in the name of natural persons: in 31% of cases they are women (it was 26% in 2011), a percentage that reaches 70% in the Ukrainian community; 60% in the Philippines and Poland; 46% in the Chinese one. Immigrant businesses, therefore, are increasingly pink, especially in the south where the female segment accounts for 44%.
Again according to the Abi-CeSPI report, the companies of the new Italians have on average less than 10 employees, with an annual turnover of less than 2 million euros. We are therefore dealing with small companies, but increasingly projected towards foreign countries: in fact, from the experimental analysis conducted by the Observatory with ISTAT and ICE, it emerges that immigrant-owned companies that have commercial relations with their country of origin respectively represent 29% of Italian exporting companies and 39% of importing companies. "Ambassadors" or suppliers of the typical Made in Italy production chains, immigrant-owned companies therefore show a dynamism and a marked vocation for internationalization, which represents an opportunity for the financial world as well as a significant contribution to the entire system- Village.
According to Observatory data, the banking sector is the main interlocutor of immigrant micro-enterprises to which it offers support and assistance in the various phases of start-up, development and growth of entrepreneurial activity. In 2014, among the business customers of Italian banks and BancoPosta, the Chinese ones grew above all, followed by the Romanians, the Albanians, the Moroccans and those of Bangladesh. If we look at the single migrant community, the micro-enterprises of citizens of Bangladesh, but also of Senegal, Pakistan and Ukraine are growing significantly. In any case, 80% of small immigrant entrepreneurs who have a small business current account in the Italian financial system come from Europe and Asia.
As regards the distribution of migrant businesses throughout the country, the largest number of small business current accounts is concentrated in the regions of Central Italy and in particular in Rome, confirming an entrepreneurial vivacity already highlighted in the past.
The support of the financial sector to immigrant companies certainly passes through credit which is an essential factor for the growth and development of the business. In 2014, the number of loans to small migrant entrepreneurs grew by 2,5% compared to 2013, bringing the incidence of loans on total current accounts to 39% (a figure which rises to 43% in Central Italy). This increase is driven by the short-term component, even if the long-term component remains prevalent and concerns 56% of existing loans. Small entrepreneurs from the Philippines (62%), Albania (62%), Peru (61%), Moldova (61%) and Ukraine (59%) make greater use of medium-long term credit.
