It's official: 1 million Romanians in ItalyUpdated: 26-03-2010 | Regional Europe

The Caritas - IDOS report, Romanians in Italy between rejection and acceptance, presented on Thursday at Rome confirms what estimates foresaw: in 2010, Romanians in Italy total officially, 1 million. If the ISTAT statistics talked about 953,000 Romanians with residence in Italy, Caritas added the 55,000 Romanians who are waiting for a final decision on their residence applications. However, the number of requests might be double which might increase the total number of Romanians. The study is the most recent in Italy. Among others, it clarifies the questions related to criminality rates among the Romanian community. Even though Italians associate Romanians with high criminality rates, the statistics reveal the contrary: Romanians make up 25% of the total foreigners and only 13.8% were accused.

Romanian immigrants in EU to be soon more numerous than Turks

The Romanian immigrants in the European Union states, whose number is currently put at 2.3 million - with 80 percent of them in Italy and Spain - will soon outnumber the Turks (2.4 million persons), shows a survey called The Romanians in Italy Between Rejection and Acceptance that was unveiled by the Catholic Church's organisations Caritas Italiana and Caritas Romania at Accademia di Romania based in Rome.

'The number of the Romanian immigrants in the EU states stood at 1.7 million at the end of 2007, out of a total 31 million immigrants from various countries. At present, Turks remain the largest immigrant community in the EU with 2.4 million members, but Romanians rank second with 2.3 million, having recorded a significant rise in the last two years and a tendency to catch up with the Turks fast', said sociologist Antonio Ricci, a representative for the centre for immigration studies of Caritas Italiana.

Romanian ambassador to Italy Razvan Rusu, who attended the report launch, stressed it is important to no longer speak of the Romanians as 'immigrants', since they are European citizens who benefit from the rights to the freedom of movement and labour force mobility inside the EU. He added it is important that the Italian-based Romanians, the most numerous foreign community, have begun being seen beyond the economic perspective, of employed workers and they are now perceived as whole human beings, with a hard life full of hopes, who make efforts to integrate into the host society.

With respect to the Romanians' integration in the job market, 680,000 Romanians work for Italian employers with all legal papers, making an annual contribution of roughly 2 billion euros to the Italian social insurance system. The net average pay of the Romanians working in Italy stands at around 10,080 euros a year or some 800 euros a month.

Moreover, the number of the Romanian entrepreneurs in Italy has reached 30,000, i.e. 10 times higher on 2003, with the number of the VAT-paying Romanians in Italy growing at an annual pace of 9,000 over 2008-2009.