Immigration Policies, Budgetary Discipline and Fiscal Decentralization: The Italian Case

Economists have analysed the effects of migration on the economy and its determinants, trying to identify the push and pull factors of immigration, and the role of labour mobility in the reduction of regional income inequalities. Currently, some scholars argue that migration can have an important role in the reduction of the inequalities. Has it happened in the past and this could happen also in the future, as it is possible and desirable, both from an economic and a juridical point of view. In the present EU legal framework, in fact, immigration is qualified as a “form of mutual enrichment”. Moreover, EU Commission Communications recognise migration and mobility as “enabling factors for development” and argue that “circular migration should be facilitated to promote the economic and social development of countries of origin and destination”. However, migration in itself would not resolve the issue of the inequalities. At most, it would shift this forward, because the redistribution through immigration does not exempt from previously creating a minimum set of rules and institutions aimed at incentivating a major cooperation by countries to change the legal management systems of migration and correct their redistributive effects, and promote social and labor integration of immigrants within countries hosting migratory flows. In the light of these studies it has become evident the need for additional in depth research on the economic impact of immigration and on the effects produced by this on the inequalities and the social mobility, especially in the long run. The present paper moves, therefore, towards this direction, attempting to demonstrate, referring to the Italian case, how an adequate structure of the tax system, associated to an efficient management of the welfare system, could influence the internal and external migrations in countries and, in this way, reduce local economic imbalances and inequalities of income. However, as shown in the paper, the Italian case is emblematic because it is the clear demonstration of the serious troubles caused by the implementation of muddling and disarticulated public policies. In recent years, the Italian State, although realized regionalization and municipalization of welfare systems, wanted to introduce in its Constitution the EU Balanced Budget Principle, but without bothering to temper and balance it with the Autonomy and Subsidiarity Principles provided by the Italian Constitution and EU law. This has resulted in a deep lesion of financial autonomy of local governments and in their impossibility of implement effective policies of integration of immigrants. In this way, in Italy, the immigrants’ demand for a social inclusion and an effective participation in policy deliberation processes has remained completely unheard. The paper aims, consequently, at showing the many contradictions of the Italian legal framework, which presents a structural gap between the national policy and the overall regional regulations and implementations, and critically commenting the innovative interpretations of the constitutional case law regarding equality and reasonableness, which emphasises the relevance of legal and semi-permanent residence as a title to obtain constitutional protection, allowing legal scholars to talk about “constitutional” or “administrative” citizenship.