What we don't know about migration

Did the data and numbers provide you with any surprising information that you didn't expect?

"Actually, the data provided a lot of surprising information. I'll mention just two. The first: in China, a country with 1.4 billion inhabitants, there are just 1.5 million migrants, or just over one migrant for every thousand inhabitants. In Germany, which has less than 85 million inhabitants, there are 16.8 million migrants, representing 20 percent of the population. In China, there is one foreigner for every 1,000 inhabitants; in Germany, there are 200 foreigners for every 1,000 inhabitants. Proportionately, there are 200 times as many foreigners in Germany as in China."

And the second one?

The second: Western Europe has overtaken the United States, both in terms of the absolute number of migrants residing in the two regions and in terms of the proportion of migrants within their respective populations. Today, there are 16.4 international migrants for every 100 inhabitants in Western Europe (comprising Northern, Southern, and Continental Europe—but excluding Eastern Europe) and 15.2 international migrants for every 100 inhabitants in the United States. This is a historic overtaking, especially considering the significance of emigration to the United States over the centuries.

Is there a Promised Land for migrants?

"Well, from what I just said in the previous question, it follows that if we can speak of a Promised Land for migrants, it is today identified more with Europe than with America. Furthermore, it should be noted that of the 12 countries in the world that had more than 6 million international migrants at the end of 2024, 5 are European: Germany, England, France, Spain, and Italy—which ranks last among these 12 countries."

What does the migration phenomenon represent for advanced countries like Italy?

The populations of virtually all the most advanced countries, which are also almost entirely Western countries, have long suffered from a very low birth rate, which the many and varied pro-natalist measures fail to address. Thus, without migration, not only would these countries be condemned to lose many inhabitants, but also the workers who contribute to their wealth, as well as the taxpayers whose taxes support the services enjoyed by their citizens (schools, hospitals, transportation, etc.) and the pensions of those who leave their jobs. Naturally, policies to manage migrant flows are needed to avoid conflict, but without them we would have no future.