6 million foreign residents,[154] making up some 7.5% of the total population, include more than half a million children born in Italy to foreign nationals—second generation immigrants, but e

 Philippines    152,382   
 India    145,164   
The postwar economic miracle, ending many decades of poverty and emigration, induced big social changes such as lower birth rates, an aging population and thus a shrinking workforce. Under these circumstances, starting from the late 1970s, Italy became to attract increasing flows of foreign immigrants. The present-day figure of about 4.6 million foreign residents,[154] making up some 7.5% of the total population, include more than half a million children born in Italy to foreign nationals—second generation immigrants, but exclude foreign nationals who have subsequently acquired Italian nationality; this applied to 53,696 people in 2008.[155]
The official figures also exclude illegal immigrants, whose numbers are very difficult to determine; they are estimated to be at least 670,000.[156] Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and, more recently, the 2004 and 2007 enlargements of the European Union, the main waves of migration have originated from former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (especially Romania, Albania, Ukraine and Poland). The second most important area of immigration to Italy has always been the neighbouring North Africa (in particular, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia), with soaring arrivals as a consequence of the Arab Spring. Furthermore, in recent years, growing migration fluxes from the Far East (notably, China[157] and the Philippines) and Latin America (Ecuador, Peru) have been recorded.
Currently, about one million Romanian citizens (around one tenth of them being Roma[158]) are officially registered as living in Italy, representing thus the most important individual country of origin, followed by Albanians and Moroccans with about 500,000 people each. The number of unregistered Romanians is difficult to estimate, but the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network suggested in 2007 that there might have been half a million or more.[159][note 3]
Overall, at the end of 2000s (decade) the foreign born population of Italy was from: Europe (54%), Africa (22%), Asia (16%), the Americas (8%) and Oceania (0.06%). The distribution of immigrants is largely uneven in Italy: 87% of immigrants live in the northern and central parts of the country (the most economically developed areas), while only 13% live in the southern half of the peninsula.
Languages
Main article: Languages of Italy