Romanians in Italy
Romanians in Italy (Romanian: "românii din Italia"; Italian: "romeni in Italia" or "rumeni in Italia") became a significant population after 1999, due to a large wave of emigration known in Romania as "Fenomenul migrației către UE" (the phenomenon of migration toward the European Union). A large part of Romanian emigrants went to Spain or Italy, whose national languages are Romance languages like Romanian. They were followed by another wave beginning in 2002, when Romanian citizens obtained the right to move to any Schengen Zone country without a visa. In 2007 Romania joined the European Union, further increasing  the economic and political ties between the countries. , there were 1.137.728 Romanian citizens living in Italy, the largest Romanian immigrant population in any country as well as the largest immigrant group within Italy. A further 122,667 Moldovans, most of whom also speak Romanian, were also living in Italy. Between 2008 and 2020 98,499 Romanians acquired Italian citizenship Demographics. Religion. In the years 2011 and 2012 the ISTAT made a survey regarding the religious affiliation among the immigrants in Italy, the religion of the Romanian people in Italy were as follows: