Native immigration and pull factors evolution in Italy: a spatial approach

In Italy several small and medium towns - not belonging to metropolitan areas - could be seen as weak from both the demographic and economic point of view. In particular, the dynamic and level of migration could be seen as an important signal of socio-economic factors. Our aim is to examine the pull force decline (in terms of immigration rates) for four Italian regions: Piedmont, Marche, Apulia and Calabria, at the level of municipalities in relation to economic change. Economic and demographic crisis go side-by-side with the abandonment of small towns by the Italian population and the arrival of the foreign immigrants. Our study considers variables take into account the “suburbanity” of the areas with their neighbourhoods to bring into better focus the existence of a spatial link between immigration in one area and the bordering areas. In the paper some technical tools typical of Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) are used. Our method implies different spatial models that follow the classic econometric approach.