.
< Back

4. Data on Filipino Migrants in Italy

Italian government Overview

From the 2016 Executive Summary of “THE FILIPINO COMMUNITY. Annual Report on the Presence of Migrants in Italy“, the Italian Ministero del Lavoro e delle Politiche Sociali (Ministry of Labor and Social Policies; partly paraphrased):

  • REGULARLY RESIDING: 167,176
  • MEN: 42.7%; WOMEN: 57.3%,
  • MINORS: 36,418 (21.8%)
  • EMPLOYMENT RATE: 81.3%
  • UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: 6.4%
  • MAIN SECTORS OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY: OTHER PUBLIC, SOCIAL AND PERSONAL SERVICES (70%)
  • SETTLEMENT AREAS: LOMBARDIA (34.3%), LAZIO (27.8%), EMILIA ROMAGNA (8.5%)
  • MAIN EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL CERTIFICATE (45%)
  • CITIZENSHIPS GRANTED IN 2015: 3,050

Demography

  • in 2012-16, the average age of the Filipino community was 36, and 40 for those regularly residing (compared with 32 for the entire non-EU population)
  • a low percentage of citizens of Filipino origin acquire Italian citizenship, an indication of the difficulties encountered in the stabilisation process, most likely due to the specialisation of this community in the sphere of domestic and family services
  • At 1 January 2016, the Filipino community was the sixth largest in terms of the number of regularly residing citizens (167,176 Filipino citizens held a valid residence permit, that is, 4.3% of all non-EU citizens residing in Italy).

Education and Social Status

  • The level of education of Filipino workers is slightly higher than that of non-EU workers present in Italy taken as a whole: more than half of workers from the community under review hold at least an upper secondary education qualification (9% also have a higher education title). This does not differ greatly from that recorded for all non-EU citizens, among whom the share of workers having at least an upper secondary school qualification is 47%, yet it is well above that recorded for workers from other countries in eastern Asia: 19%.
  • The difficulties faced by the Filipino community in settling down and integrating in Italy can be clearly seen by the figures on marriages with Italian citizens: in 2014 there were 114 mixed marriages involving Filipino citizens (1% of all mixed marriages), 91% of which had an Italian man marrying a Filipino woman, with the remaining 9% of marriages involving a Filipino man and an Italian woman.
  • The Filipino community has a considerably lower bank account rate compared with the non-EU national average: the percentage of Filipino adults holding a current account is 69.3% (+4.4% vis-à-vis previous year). Of these current accounts, 41% have been held with banks for more than 5 years (banking stability index), two percentage points higher than the non-EU national average (39%). The number of current accounts held by Filipino women is higher than the national average: 57%, compared to 45% for all non-EU women in possession of a current account.

Employment

  • Filipino migration to Italy has historically been characterized by a greater number of women immigrants, meeting labour needs in the family services sector. An analysis of employment trends indicates that the Filipino community is still mostly employed in this sector of the labour market, that is, the sector of other public, social and personal services accounts for 70% of Filipino workers (compared with 34% of all non-EU citizens). Over 94% of Filipino workers are employed in the tertiary sector.
  • Filipino employment rate in Italy is 81.3%, the highest value among the main non-EU communities. Unemployment rate is 6.4%, significantly lower than for all non-EU citizens at 16.7%.
  • The Filipino community does not have a large share of wage supplements granted by INPS (in the event of suspended or reduced working activity): 716, or just 1% of non-EU beneficiaries, very low considering that about 8% of the non-EU workforce is Filipino.
  • The share of Filipino citizens among those receiving unemployment allowances (different forms of Italian Social Employment Insurance) is also low: 2.9% (11,419) of all non-EU recipients. Filipino citizens are mostly granted ASPI (55.2%), 9.8% receive the MiniASPI and 30% are paid NASPI, in effect since May 2015.

Youth

  • Minors of Filipino origin totalled 36,418, making up 3.8% of all non-EU minors. In line with the negative trend of the community as a whole, the number of minors of Filipino origin decreased, after years of continuous increase, by 301 units, a decrease of 0.8% compared to the previous year. This was influenced by a drop in births recorded between 2013 and 2014 in this community equal to -7%.
  • 73% of Filipino minors are enrolled in Italian schools (compared with an average for non-EU minors as a whole of 65%). Students of Filipino origin in Italian schools for the year 2015/2016 numbered 26,533, making up 4.3% of the non-EU school population.
  • The largest number of Filipino pupils attend primary school, 8,712 (32.8%). This level is followed by upper secondary school, attended by 27.7% of Filipino students, while about 24% are enrolled in lower secondary school, and 15.6% in infant school.
  • 543 Filipino university students are enrolled in the 2015/2016 academic year, 1% of the non-EU academic population in Italy. (Despite the low numbers, the figure has risen by 41% over the past 4 years, going from 385 to 543 students, compared with a global increase of non-EU university students of 7%.)
  • Filipino NEETs, i.e. youngsters aged between 15 and 29 years old that do not study, train or work, numbered 6,511, or 2.5% of all NEETs of non-EU origin.
  • Compared with the previous year, their number rose by 577 units, a rise of 9.7%, due solely to the growth in the number of female NEETs: compared with a 43.7% fall in the number of male NEETs, the number of young Filipino women not working rose by 89.6%.