De la economia submergida a la devaluación profesional: nivel educativo e inserción en el mercato de trabajo de los inmigrantes en Italia

Firstly, the article argues that contemporary inmigranteson into Italy, as well as into the other South-European countries, is moved also by a labour demand from the receiving economic systems. In a framework of restrictive immigration policies, a well grounded underground economy promotes an unauthorised immigration, but, when they are regularised by the frequent amnesties, migrant workers satisfy also a large demand for registered labour, although at lowest levels of the occupational ladder. New migrants, however, are different from the «targeted» ones of the old European immigration, because many of them are highly educated people who are either forced or prone to take very poorly qualified jobs. Using data from a survey on 8.000 migrants living in the largest Italian region, the second part of the article is focused on two points: whether the proportion of educated migrants is lower among those who entered Italy more recently and how the educational attainment affects migrants¿ insertion in the receiving labour market. The results show that also the behaviour and the social orientation of new migrants are different. The fact that the «followers» are as educated as the «explorers» were confirms that the unauthorised inmigranteson is permanently self-selected. Finally, if controlled by other several factors, the educational attainment results not to affect employment and unemployment probabilities of migrants. We can suppose, therefore, that the higher education is not a resource, but a social constraint for many migrants who have not a merely instrumental commitment to work.