The creed of the Italians

People who have their roots elsewhere, who move to a country far from their own and start a new adventure, very often not at all easy and simple. Living as a foreigner in another country is an increasingly common experience globally, which in Italy affects millions of people.
Personal stories are all different, and naturally the feeling of feeling an integral part or feeling extraneous to the social fabric of the destination country can vary greatly. Among the many social and cultural elements that come into play, the religious one is one of the most relevant, due to the identity aspect it entails and the possibility, at least theoretical, of favoring or disfavoring integration with the local population.

Reading the data from our country, based on ISTAT sources and processed by the ISMU Foundation, the estimate at the moment (reference date beginning of 2024) is that among foreigners residing in Italy, there are around 2.8 million people of Christian religion, a hundreds of thousands more than on the same date in 2023. In our country, that is, people who profess to be Christians and who are immigrants represent 53% of a total of 5.3 million foreign residents, confirming themselves as the majority religious group. Among Christians, the largest group is mainly made up of Orthodox (1.5 million) and Catholics (around 900 thousand), followed at a distance by evangelicals (145 thousand), Copts (around 85 thousand) and people of other affiliations (overall, other approximately 200 thousand).

Foreigners residing in Italy of Muslim faith are around 1.6 million, a substantially stable number compared to the previous year. To a lesser extent, again among foreigners, there are Buddhists (about 180 thousand), Hindus (about 110 thousand), Sikhs (90 thousand) and others (who overall are about 20 thousand). 10% of all foreigners, i.e. over half a million people, declare themselves atheists or agnostics.
Taking a look at the world map, a quarter of the Muslims residing in Italy are Moroccan citizens, for a total of almost 420 thousand people.
Followed by Muslim citizens of Albania (around 160 thousand), Bangladesh (150 thousand) and Pakistan (around 140 thousand). Among Orthodox Christians, Romanians stand out (around 880 thousand), who alone clearly represent the absolute majority of this religious component among foreigners, followed by Ukrainians (around 230 thousand) and Moldovans (around 100 thousand). As regards Catholics, however, among the most numerous nationalities are the Filipinos (around 140 thousand) and the Albanians (around 90 thousand).

Many different faiths, many ways of living the professed faith, with different "transmission belts" of faith that have an impact on the concrete ways of daily life.
Taking into account that for a part, fortunately a very minority, of the foreigners present in Italy, faith represents the main reason for the migratory choice, where religious persecution has determined the need to move away from one's country of origin. Whether it is a key element of one's individuality and one's feeling of social cohesion, or not at all, religion remains an important factor at a global level in determining relationships between individuals and different national communities.

Stefano Caredda
NP August / September 2024