Do migrations have an urban vocation yet? New trends in italian urban settlement

Italian statisticians and demographers observed in XXth century that generally the trend to settle in the largest urban areas is leaded by individuals seeking to enhance their quality of life. Franco Alasia and Danilo Montaldi introduced in 1960 one of the first researches on Italian internal migrations recognizing that «migrations have an urban vocation». Researches made in other national contexts obtained the same conclusions. It is possible to conclude that migrations have an urban vocation in an increasing intensification period of industrialization. Industrial crisis that started in the second half of the 70's and the following changes of labor market have made less secure the correspondence between city and immigration. Since the 80's the trends of the territorial settlements started to change; while Italy was becoming an immigration country, the settlement processes become less predictable and counter-urbanization and urban diffusion phenomena began. In this deeply change, it is useful to highlight the new spatial distribution of immigrant population and which territorial areas have been most affected by their presence. Over the last two decades, between 1991 and 2010, this question has become particularly important in Italian case. We can assume that vocation of migration is still urban, but it is associated to the new socio-territorial configurations, as, for example, the periurban or neo-rural configurations, and to new processes of social segregation. The research tries to answer to this question.