According to the statistics institute, in 2002 there were 1,448,000 foreigners with permanent residence permits in Italy. Compared with 1992, this figure has doubled. There is a predominance of communities from Eastern European countries over Philippine and Chinese communities. Thus, the Romanian community has surpassed the Philippine one in size. Between 1999 and 2000, the influx of citizens from Romania grew by 80%. But the largest community remains the Moroccan one (167,889 residence permits issued as of January 1, 2002), followed by the Albanian (157,317), Romanian (82,985), Philippine (67,711) and Chinese (62,146).
Changes are also observed in internal migration: from 1996 to 2000, the number of people who moved from the southern regions of the country to the north-east of Italy increased by 45%. In addition, Italians prefer to leave large cities and settle in surrounding areas, creating megazones of big cities, reports Inopressa.ru.