section_path: Demographics/Immigration
section_name: Immigration
paragraph_text: Immigration
  
  In the 1980s, until then a linguistically and culturally homogeneous society, Italy began to attract substantial flows of immigrants. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, and enlargements of the EU, waves of migration originated from the former socialist countries of East Europe. Another source of immigration is neighbouring North Africa, with arrivals soaring as a consequence of the Arab Spring. Growing migration fluxes from Asia-Pacific (notably China and the Philippines) and Latin America have been recorded.
  
  As of 2010, the foreign-born population was from the following regions: Europe (54%), Africa (22%), Asia (16%), the Americas (8%), and Oceania (0.06%). The distribution of the foreign population is geographically varied: in 2020, 61% of foreign citizens lived in the north, 24% in the centre, 11% in the south, and 4% on the islands.
  
  In 2021, Italy had about 5.2 million foreign residents, making up 9% of the population. The figures include more than half a million children born in Italy to foreign nationals but exclude foreign nationals who have subsequently acquired Italian citizenship; in 2016, about 201,000 people became Italian citizens. The official figures also exclude illegal immigrants, which was estimated to be 670,000 as of 2008. About one million Romanian citizens are registered as living in Italy, representing the largest migrant population.