The pensions and social security agency INPS said that migrants in Italy pay about one GDP point in social security contributions annually.
Tito Boeri, the head of pensions and social security agency INPS, said that migrants pay approximately one GDP point in social security contributions annually. ''Legally documented migrants pay eight billion euros in social security contributions each year, and they receive three in terms of pensions and other social services, for a net surplus of around five billion euros for the INPS coffers'', Boeri told a parliamentary committee of inquiry on the migrant-reception system.
One in three illegal workers is undocumented migrant
Boeri then outlined the employment status of migrants in Italy, stressing that one in three illegal workers is an undocumented migrant, according to inspections carried out by INPS on companies in the 2013-2015 period. A reported 80 percent of immigrants are still paying social security contributions five years after being legalized.
''The public debate should focus on how to integrate immigrants in a stable way in our legal job market. Integration in the job market would also contribute to improving the perception Italians have of immigrants'', Boeri added.
The contribution of immigrants is key
According to INPS, social security contributions paid by immigrants are fundamental in Italy: ''Just as the perception of the local population is that there are too many immigrants, we increasingly need immigrants to fund our social security system'', Boeri stated, presenting a study that has estimated that cutting job permits for foreign workers would cost over 37 billion euros in 2040. ''Our country has closed many channels of legal entry into the labor market while it is attracting a growing number of refugees and illegal immigrants'', explained Boeri, although legal immigration is ''contributing to fund our pensions system."
According to the data, new immigrants are young, far from retirement age, with 80 percent of new residency permits granted to foreigners under 35 years of age. Employees under 25 years of age who are paying INPS have also grown from 27.5 percent in 1996 to 35 percent in 2015. According to Boeri, ''it appears difficult to think that youths are fleeing our country due to the competition with immigrants in the labor market'', given that migrants entering the labor market are ''in the majority of cases low-skilled while the percentage of Italians without a university degree who chose to emigrate for economic reasons has halved between 2007 and 2015."