Changes of status of immigrants in Italy: results of a record-linkage on administrative sources

At the beginning of 2007 the number of legal foreigners in Italy is about 3 million, corresponding to 5% of total population. A large amount of them holds a valid permit of stay: they are more than 2.4 millions, as accompanied minors are not included. The administrative database of valid permits is therefore a mine of information on personal characteristics of immigrants. In particular, it is interesting to analyze the changes in the type of permit (by reason and duration of stay) and territorial mobility between two subsequent authorizations. These changes of status cannot be observed with annual stock data, which do not report the previous situation, but only the present one. Therefore, a linkage between databases of subsequent years is needed. Ministry of interiors provides Istat with individual but not nominative data, identified by an unique code generated by a ad hoc procedure. As it was changed several times over the years, following various reorganizations of administrative procedures and database design, it is possible to use it only for some specific years. The record linkage can be successfully carried out for the years 2002-2003 and 2006-2007. These years are selected also because 2002 is the year just before the last regularization (which allowed about 650,000 foreigners to obtain a valid residence permit) and 2006-2007 is the most recent period. Result of the record-linkage allow an in-depth analysis of transitions in and out the labour market and of other migratory paths, including territorial mobility of the foreigners legally living in Italy.