African emigrants to Italy


African emigrants to Italy include Italian citizens and residents originally from Africa. Immigrants from Africa officially residing in Italy in 2015 numbered about 1,000,000 residents.
In 2014 over 170,000 migrants arrived which represented the biggest influx of people into one country in European Union History. A large percentage of them arrive via Africa.
The African migrants specifically use the coast of the country Libya to travel across the Mediterranean Sea in large numbers hoping to land on Italian shores. Although departing from Libya, most are from Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, Eritrea, and Syria. The route is dangerous and often unsuccessful; in 2015, 2,000 people died crossing the Mediterranean and the Libyan coast guard intercepted many of the boats which were transporting the illegal immigrants from Africa and into Italy. As this route begins to gain more and more publicity and attention, smugglers are using alternate routes such as Egypt, the Balkan route from Greece, and a very risky route from mountain passes in Albania.
In 2016, Italy’s finance minister pushed for financial compensation from the European Union for his country’s financial losses because of mass migration. As of 2016, the European Union had put forth 1.8 billion euros for the entirety of Africa's refugee efforts in Europe.

Countries of origin

from North Africa

The largest group of immigrants from Africa are people from North Africa, numbering 641.085 official residents in 2016. By country of origin, most of these recent arrivals are from Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria. Italy also has a number of immigrants from Libya, territories where Italian expatriates had a presence during the colonial period.

Sub-Saharan Africans

Compared to Maghrebis/Berbers from North Africa, the percentage of Sub-Saharan Africans as a proportion of immigrants to Italy from Africa is 35.7%. Most come from Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana.There are also smaller numbers from Eritrea,from Ethiopia and from Somalia.

Notable individuals in Italy

The following is a list of notable African nationals who have immigrated to and now at least partially reside in Italy.

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