Socio-demographic and labour characteristics of Ukrainians in Italy
Publication Date/Time
2022-08-05T13:35:50+00:00
Understanding the demographic, economic, and labour market
characteristics of Ukrainians living in Italy
The Russian invasion of Ukraine forced a significant part of the
Ukrainian population to flee their country. Most of the refugees
sought immediate shelter in neighbouring countries, but in time many
reached friends and families in other EU Member States, where
communities of Ukrainian origin were already established.

Italy, for example, hosts one the largest Ukrainian communities in
Europe, making it an interesting case study to understand the living
conditions of this group. People born in Ukraine started to immigrate
to Italy only relatively recently, after the dissolution of the Soviet
Union, but are increasingly integrating into Italy’s socioeconomic
structure.

Reports
[https://www.lavoro.gov.it/documenti-e-norme/studi-e-statistiche/Documents/Rapporti%20annuali%20sulle%20comunità%20migranti%20in%20Italia%20-%20anno%202021/z-Quaderno-di-confronto-2021.pdf]
from the Italian Labour Ministry can help us understand their life,
from both a demographic and an economic point of view. One of the most
important features of the Ukrainian presence in Italy is that it’s
mostly composed of women. They make up 79 % of the total, the highest
of all communities of foreign origin in the country.

This feature was mostly driven by economic factors. Driven by labour
demand, Ukrainian men tended to go to Portugal, Russia and Spain. On
the other hand, Greece and Italy needed more domestic workers and
caregivers for the elderly, so they attracted a much larger share of
women who, traditionally, are more often employed in this sector. As
the reports stressed, this gender imbalance is slowly shrinking over
the years.

Up until recently, residence permits for Ukrainians were obtained
mostly for work or family reasons, and less frequently because of
study or asylum requests, as compared to the general non-EU
population. This changed drastically with the onset of the war and the
Ukrainian beneficiaries of temporary protection grew
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/MIGR_ASYTPSM/default/table?lang=en&category=migr.migr_asy.migr_asytp]
as people fled the country.

Another important feature of Ukrainians in Italy is their age. Most of
Italy’s migrant population tends to be young, but this is not the
case for Ukrainians whose average age is actually slightly higher than
that of Italians. 54 % of them are 30–59 years old, 28 % are 60
years old or more, while only 18 % are less than 30 years old – as
compared to 38 % of the total non-EU population in Italy.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/Artboard%201_0.png]
When it comes to the labour market, the most prevalent profile among
Ukrainians is in the service sector. As a share of the total
population, the employment level of Ukrainians is slightly higher than
that of Italians and of the non-EU population. This is a trend
exclusively driven by women. 61 % of them are employed, while the
figure for Italians and non-EU people is, respectively, 58 and 57 %.
The opposite is true for men, whose employment rate is significantly
lower than that of the other two groups.

This difference is also evident in other indicators used to analyse
the labour market, such as the inactivity rate (the share of people
who are not working, not available to work or not looking for work)
and the unemployment rate (the share of people who are not working but
are available or looking for work).

As a result of the economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19
pandemic, in 2020 the employment rate for Ukrainians was 3.7 % lower
than in the previous year, a result similar to the whole non-EU
population, with a 4.6 % growth of the inactive. It means that during
this time, not only did workers lose their jobs, but many dropped out
of the labour force entirely.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/Artboard%202.png]
The prevalence of Ukrainians in the service sector can be fully
appreciated when looking at the distribution of their sectors of
employment. 58 % of them work in the service sector, as opposed to
34 % of the whole non-EU population in Italy. For women, the
incidence is even higher – 67 % of them work in public or private
services, which include jobs like housekeeper or caretaker for the
elderly.

They tend to work very rarely in agriculture or generally in the
primary sector, as they also do in industry and construction. However,
their presence in transportation and other services for business is
higher than that of the other two groups.

The Ukrainian community tends to also have a high educational
attainment. 21.3 % of them have a tertiary degree and 42 % a
secondary one, as compared to 11.4 % and 29 % respectively in the
whole non-EU population.

While the domestic services sector is often a low-paying one, monthly
earnings for Ukrainian workers are roughly EUR 50 more than other
non-EU workers. Women employed in that sector tend to have a higher
income than men – about EUR 100 more. Notwithstanding the
disparity in income, this is not enough to compensate for the gender
pay gap of all employees, and men still earn on average roughly
EUR 400 more than women.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/Artboard%203.png]
 

To access the data used in this story, you can download it here
[https://gitlab.com/dataeuropa/data-provider-repository/-/blob/master/Datastories/Data_story_-_Socio-demographic_and_labour_characteristics_of_Ukrainians_in_Italy.xlsx].

 

_Article by Davide Mancino_

_Data visualisations by Federica Fragapane_
