Italian Migration Policies at the Beginning of the European Integration Process: Fruitless Attempts?

Among all the Western European countries that joined the Organisation for European Economic Coop-eration (OEEC), Italy was one of the most active nations in the shaping of post-WWII European migra-tion policies. Unlike a number of its international partners (i.e. France and the UK), Italy’s Christian-Democratic Government put aside the goal of internal full employment and dealt with its high unem-ployment rates through the way-out strategy of promoting emigration flows. In doing so, the Govern-ment aimed at achieving not only the reduction of unemployed amounts and the inflow of remittances, but also the decrease of social conflict that massive jobless discontent was supposed to foment in the country. Consequently, Rome sought to open up, through bilateral agreements or multilateral measures promoted in the framework of the OEEC, new outlets suitable for Italian unemployed. This essay examines the actions that Italy promoted at both national (in terms of emigrants’ recruitment) and OEEC level. It also outlines in which terms Italy considered the issue of workers’ migration as a pivotal element of its national economic program as well as of its post-war foreign policy, and finally it explores the complex reasons why this strategy proved to be unsatisfactory for Rome’s emigration goals.