MESTRE (VENEZIA) (ITALPRESS) – For years we have talked about a real escape of our most qualified young people: graduates who, after their studies, left Italy to seek better opportunities for work and life abroad. A partial reading, however, because he considered above all those who left, without taking into account those who arrived in our country. The new Istat data allows today to have a more complete picture.
Between 2019 and 2024, little more than 78 thousand Italians between 25 and 34 years with a degree moved abroad. In the same period, however, almost 88 thousand young foreigners of the same age group, with at least one three-year degree, transferred their residence to Italy.
Among young foreign graduates who choose our country, 17.8 percent come from South America, 27.6 percent from Europe and over a third from Asia. In absolute terms the balance is therefore positive and the 10 thousand young graduates, for accuracy 9.593. A fact that invites us to look at the phenomenon of youth mobility with a different perspective: Italy certainly continues to lose part of its graduates, especially in the Mezzogiorno, but at the same time manages to attract qualified young people from abroad in higher numbers.
To really understand the dynamics of graduates present in our country, therefore, it is not enough to count who leaves: it is also necessary to consider who chooses to arrive. This is the CGIA Study Office. In 2024 there were 20,711 Italian graduates between 25 and 34 years left Italy to move abroad (parts net of Italians returned). A significant figure, according to the CGIA, although it must be related to the consistency of the reference population.
At 1 January 2025, in fact, there were little more than 1.8 million Italian graduates in the same age group. Therefore, young graduates who have chosen to move abroad in the course of 2024 represent only 1.1% of the total. If, on the other hand, the entire Italian population is considered between 25 and 34 years, which net of foreigners is constituted by more than 5.2 million people, the incidence of young graduates who have left Italy drops to 0.4 percent.
Why has a reality not always corresponded to that lived by the country for years? It is a question to which, according to the CGIA, it is not easy to give an answer, but an element appears evident: in Italy, always, a significant part of the public debate is often directed by the middle class, by the urban bourgeoisie living in the big cities. Above all, these social environments determine the topics that attract the attention of the media, politics and public opinion.
Questions directly affecting these groups are so often transformed into subjects of general interest. The risk is to confuse a particular condition with a universal reality. Our country, however, is characterized by deep territorial, economic and social differences. What is a priority in large cities can have a completely different weight in small centres, peripherals or productive areas.
It is not a question of questioning the importance of these issues, but of avoiding a single part of society to impose its agenda on the rest of the country. A truly representative narrative should give voice to statistical data – which very often allow us to dimension a phenomenon – to the plurality of social experiences and conditions, avoiding transforming a particular perspective into a general truth. The problem, therefore, is not only what we are talking about, but also what remains out of the story.
Anagraphic cancellations abroad of young Italian graduates (25-34 years) went from 16.615 in 2019 to 25.552 in 2024, with a significant increase of 53.8 percent. Also considering the migration balance of young graduates (so net of return), between 2019 and 2024 the Italian balance has passed from -10.632 to -20.711. However, the emigration of young Italian graduates must be observed together with the arrivals of young foreign graduates.
In the period 2019-2024, in fact, the negative balance of young Italian graduates (-78 thousand) was compensated by the positive balance of young foreign graduates (+88 thousand). In five years, Italy registered a positive balance of young graduates of 9.593.
Regional data on the migration balance of graduates between 25 and 34 years in the period 2019-2024 highlight two opposite-signed dynamics. On the one hand, all the Italian regions recorded a negative balance for young Italian graduates: altogether, against 35,781 foreign inscriptions there are 114,028 foreign cancellations, with a net loss of more than 78 thousand Italian graduates.
On the other hand, the international mobility of young foreign graduates produces a largely positive balance: almost 99 thousand inscriptions against 11 thousand cancellations, for a net gain of 87.840 units. The contribution of the foreign component thus succeeds, at national level, not only to compensate for the outage of Italian graduates, but to determine a overall positive balance of about 9,600 young graduates.
The compensation, however, has strong territorial differences. The North West recorded the best result (+12.817), thanks above all to Lombardy (+9.076), while the Centre also has a positive balance (+5.849), driven by Lazio (+3.286) and Tuscany (+2.667). The result of the North East (+2.346): in this area the substantial contribution of foreign graduates is not sufficient to fully compensate for the Italian exits in Veneto (-671), Trentino-Alto Adige (-288) and Friuli-Venezia Giulia (-226), while Emilia-Romagna recorded a total balance clearly positive (+3.531).
The most critical situation concerns the Mezzogiorno, where the overall balance remains negative for over 11 thousand graduates (-11.419). In all the main southern regions the arrival of foreign graduates attenuates, but fails to fill, the loss of young Italians: the deficit reaches -3.762 in Campania, -2.994 in Sicily and -2.581 in Puglia.
-Photo IPA Agency-
(ITALPRESS).
