Italy Has a Migrant Problem, but Not the One You Think
Refugees Dominate Headlines as the Country's Best and Brightest Depart
Refugee arrival numbers in Italy have flattened out, despite waves of crackdowns aimed at stemming the flow of new arrivals landing on the country’s shores.
Italy’s costly, criticized, off-again-on-again migrant processing center in Albania has been blocked by courts and has never gotten off the ground.
But even without it, Giorgia Meloni’s government has been tightened the screws: cracking down on rescue operations departing from Italy (including banning flights used to spot distressed migrant boats), financing sometimes abusive programs to prevent would-be asylum seekers from leaving transit countries, and restricting access to reception programs in Italy.
When Meloni ran for office three years ago, she campaigned on reducing the tide of migrants entering from Africa and the Middle East. Arrivals rose in both 2022 and 2023, then fell sharply after the policy changes, dropping to 67,000 new arrivals last year, down from 158,000, according to UN figures. This year is on pace for a slight uptick.
But the real story is quieter and more damaging, a trend in the opposite direction. Far, far from the rickety migrant boats off the Sicilian shore, it’s visible in airport departure terminals in Rome, Milan, Bologna, Bergamo, and Naples.
