Sala Meeting, ed. 15, piano 3, ore 13:30-14:30

As of 2023, Italy was home to 450,000 refugees and asylum seekers (UNHCR 2024) and in the same year, the country received 65,000 new applications for asylum (ECRE 2023). The very limited scientific literature available on refugees in Italy (exclusively at the regional level, through small ad hoc surveys) showed that refugees have worse living conditions than migrants (even compared to those undocumented). However, no official (neither regional nor national) data exists at the individual and national level to assess the vulnerability of this population, their socio-demographic characteristics, living conditions and integration level. The purpose of this seminar is threefold. First, we provide an overview of the socio-economic and health status of refugees, beneficiaries of international protection and asylum seekers in Italy, grounding on an original brand-new survey. Second, we present two multidimensional indices to capture both overall vulnerability and health vulnerability. Thirdly, we analyze the social and legal determinants of overall and health vulnerability through regression analysis, focusing on factors such as socio-demographic characteristics, legal status, and experiences of discrimination. The study is based on primary data collected in nine Italian regions between March and August 2024, covering about 1,300 refugees, beneficiaries of international protection and asylum seekers, who arrived in Italy between 2011 and 2024. This dataset is the first to offer representative data on this population in Italy, with detailed information on economic and health status, housing conditions, socio-cultural characteristics, resilience and experiences of discrimination.

Data collection and analysis were carried out in the AVRAI framework, a PRIN2022 research funded by the Italian Ministry of Research and University. AVRAI is a collaboration between the University of Palermo (leader), the Universities of Bologna, and Milano Bicocca (partners).