The enquiry of Repubblica dealt with housing. Only 11.8% of immigrants own their houses. 72% rent a flat, often in unacceptable conditions
Rome – Some live in their garage. Some on a camp bed in their work places. Some share a room with other nine people. Some are content with just a “shelter for their heads”. Many are the immigrants with housing problems in Italy. One million regular immigrants. The illegal immigrants are invisible for statistics.
House emergency, reported by yesterday’s issue of Repubblica, is confirmed by the national data of the 2006 Censis report: only 11.8% of immigrants in Italy own their houses. More than 72% live in a rented house, whereas 16.1% ”live in precarious housing conditions”.
More precisely, 7.5% live with relatives and friends and 6.8% are camped in the work place.
This is not all. Almost 20% of the 72% renting a house is in “serious conditions of overcrowding”. It means that , while a million and a half immigrants enjoy stable housing conditions, about 900,000 live in uneasy conditions: an army of homeless without any rights.
The possession of a house is a prerequisite to become a legal immigrant.
In compliance with the Bossi-Fini Law (latest Italian law on immigration) applicants for permits of stay or family reunion must have a “certificato d’idoneità dell’alloggio” (certificate assessing the suitability of the housing) to demonstrate to be living in a suitable house. Suitable according to whom? According to the regional law on council housing. “The lives of immigrants depend on regional regulation”, explains Marco Paggi, lawyer of Asgi (Association of Juridical Studies on Immigration).
While 46 m2 are suitable in Lazio for two people, the same surface is suitable for one person in Veneto. An unacceptable discrimination, leading many immigrants into clandestinity. According to the tenants’ union, Sunia, 42% of regular immigrants share one or two rooms with an average of 4.6 people. That is not enough.
According to Eurispes, (Institute Of Political, Economic and Social Studies) the immigrants are charged a “special” rent: 10-20% more than an Italian citizen. Most tenants prefer not to let to non-EU citizens (57% discriminates them, according to the Association of Landlords). In 2006 Caritas (Catholic organisation for social action) outlines the situation of homeless immigrants: 32.9% live in the north of Italy, 46.5% in the centre and 20.9% in the south.
Besides unease, integration is increasing too. In 2006 more than 130,000 real estate sale contracts were signed by immigrants, most of them are Slave, African and Chinese.
The average investment amounts to €103,000, 70% of which covered by a mortgage. Many are the immigrants buying a house with other 3-4 people to share the burden. According to the research centre Cresme, today 20% of lettings and purchases are done by immigrants and by 2016 their market share will increase by 37 to 54%.
Yesterday the government confirmed the contents of the decree amending the Bossi-Fini law: new rules to facilitate legal entries into Italy and to counter irregular flows.
By Vladimiro Polchi
Traduzione a cura di Cinzia Montina, che ringraziamo.
