An attempt to identify homogeneous and spatially contiguous areas with regards to the main features of usually resident foreign population in Italy

Considering the main features of usually resident foreign population, the aim of this paper is the identification of homogeneous and spatially contiguous areas intermediate between the provincial and the national levels. Statistical indicators on usually resident foreign population computed on official data provided by the Italian Institute of Statistics (Istat) have been used as the input of a spatial clustering and regionalization method (Guo, 2008) in order to get a classification of the Italian provinces into a number of homogeneous and spatially contiguous areas. Given the progressive decentralization of governance activities, this application represents a very interesting case of study. In fact the identification of new spatial areas built on the basis of both the characteristics of the usually resident foreign population and the spatial dimension of the territory where this population lives could become a useful tool for local governance. Furthermore in the very next future the proposed method could be applied at more detailed territorial levels (e.g. Census Enumeration Areas).