L'EXODE RURAL VERS LES GRANDES VILLES
Authors: FONTI ENRICO CAPO et GIUSEPPE M. 
Published: March 2008

The purpose behind the research conducted by the Social Workers Bureau of the Servizio Contribute Agricoli Unificati (Italian State social security agency for the agricultural sector) on the phenomenon of the flight from the land to the cities in contemporary Italy is to determine a future course of action as regards this sector.

It was centered on the influx of rural folk into Rome, in the light of the observation that since the capital is not an industrial city in the strict sense of the term (and that therefore this was an apparently absurd choice as migration point), this was the ideal situation for a motivation study.

The study was made in two separate phases, the first in those communities from which migration to Rome has occurred and the second in the capital itself.

As regards methodology, for each phase of the study there were first established the problem, working hypotheses for the research, and territorial units to be used for investigation purposes, then sampling surveys in selected territorial units were undertaken and, finally, individual interviews were held (in Rome, among new arrivals, and in their villages, with those members of families who had remained behind) along with a careful description of both milieus.

One finding was that it was not only agricultural workers who were leaving rural areas but persons in other categories and occupations indirectly linked with the agricultural economy (craftsmen, small merchants, etc.) as well.

The true causes of this exodus have to be sought not only in economic circumstances (underemployment and under‐retribution) but also in the social aspirations of the migrants to a new way of life and new prospects for their children, discontent with the environment into which they were born and the low social status of farm workers, and finally, the romantic vision of the big city and the expectation of its fulfillment of certain desires (anonymity, greater opportunities for employment, amusements, etc.). The fascination and prestige of the capital (and the conviction that it is easier even for unskilled labour to find employment there) explains the choice of Rome as destination.

As a rule, the migrations are chain events very often ending up, among readily identifiable categories of persons, by the installation of these migrants in temporary, squatter slum areas, no steady but rather haphazard employment and in their failure to become economically established. To this picture must be added difficulties of adaptation to the new environment, the inevitable changes in status and in the role played by the various members of the family.

In the rural areas from which they came, the flight from the land has also upset the labour force equilibrium, agriculture tending to be left in the hands of the old folk and women, with the concomitant acquisition of a new social status and new roles for those who remain behind.

As regards the impact of such internal migration on the social security and social welfare structure there was found:

1. a lack of co‐ordination among social service agencies themselves as well as between these and social security agencies;

2. overburdening of the social security structure because of the disproportionate number of old folk and women not contributing to the funds but rather drawing benefits in rural areas while relief rolls have grown in Rome; and

3. the difficulties of regularizing the social security position of migrants in Rome, due either to ignorance of the law, their illegal retention of their names on the social security register in their villages of origin and, finally, extortion or disregard of the law by certain employers.