Governance of Immigration in Increasingly Divided Societies Empirical Evidence and Policy Proposals

The present paper deals with the issue of the governance of migratory phenomena and the desertification processes of whole regions or macroareas. In particular, it studies the effects of immigration on income inequality, attempting to demonstrate, through a critical review of the most recent research on the relationship between migration and inequality and an empirical investigation related to the effects of new internal migration in the Italian case, how out-migration can increase income inequalities, thus hindering economic growth and exacerbating regional disparities, while immigration can reduce income inequalities and mitigate economic imbalances, according to the hypothesis of skilled immigration equalising, formulated in 2008 by Kahanec and Zimmermann. From the analysis of the Italian case emerge, moreover, some useful suggestions to help policy makers and lawgivers in the management of internal migratory phenomena and counteract the human and industrial desertification of whole regions or macroareas.