Investigating labour market determinants of Italian internal migration flows, 1996-2001

Corrado Bonifazi, IRPPS.CNR, Rome
Luigi Costanzo, Instituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT)
Costanza Giovannelli, Instituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT)
Frank Heins, IRPPS.CNR, Rome

Concentrating on the demographic and geographic articulation of the Italian internal migration system, the authors analyse the determining processes of the system. The focus of this study is the link between the labour market situation and the age group specific internal migration flows. Istat provides migration statistics based on the declarations of changes of residence. Data used refer to the years 1996-2001 for all 103 Italian provinces by gender, age group, and citizenship. Out-, in- and net-migration rates, as well as destination specific out-migration rates are analysed with regression techniques that take into consideration the economic profile of the provinces of origin and destination, as well as the distance between them. The most dynamic migration flows shifted over the last decades from the industrial triangle of the Northwest to the areas of the “Third Italy”, but the most important migration flows continue to converge on the large metropolitan provinces.