The first solution proposed was for Italy to ask for cooperation from other countries to help curb the problem of illegal immigration.  The idea is for Italy to convince the countries from which people are emigrating to watch their borders as well (especially their coasts).  This could prevent much of the illegal immigration from occurring; it would also hopefully reduce the amount of deaths that happen en route in the waters on the way to Italy’s coasts.  

The benefits to this solution would be that it would ideally stop the problem at the root, by stopping illegal immigrants from leaving their countries in the first place.  This solution would involve hiring more officers to patrol these borders, and possibly the formation of a group dedicated to the organization of this project.  One problem with this is that it might be too expensive of a project for these poorer countries to undertake, especially considering the fact that if these countries were wealthier in the first place, people might not be leaving them in the first place.  

Another problem could be that it might not be in the interest of their governments to spend their time and energy on this problem, considering that some of the countries from which people are emigrating are in situations of civil unrest.  Italy’s illegal immigration is probably not at the top of their list of problems to solve.  For this solution to be effective, there would have to be complete EU cooperation, which is not possible right now.

The next solution proposed is for Italy to increase its border patrol and police force, along with making sure that all illegal immigrants that are caught in the country are arrested and sent back to their respective countries as soon as possible.  The benefits of this solution would be that it would be that it would ideally stop the flow of illegal immigration by physically not letting these people past Italy’s borders and coastlines.  In addition to this, if more people were sent away from Italy’s borders it might deter others from trying to get into the country.  

One problem this could present is much like the problem in the first solution; the Italian government may not be willing to pay for (or even afford) the extra police required to patrol the borders and coasts.  Current border patrol and coast guard officers would probably have to go through more training as well, since the tactics presently used to arrest and deport these illegal immigrants are somewhat lenient.

The next solution is to focus more closely on one of the sub problems of illegal immigration, the problem of violence and racism in Italy, assuming that whatever measures Italy is taking to keep immigrants out of the country are not working.  One big problem is that there are some foreigners who are involved in crime like prostitution, drug trafficking, and organized crime rings. Right now there are an estimated 300,000 eastern European women working as prostitutes in Western Europe, 35,000 of them are in Italy.  The reason they move to Western Europe to do this job is because they get paid much more; in their countries they would make about $100 a month at home, compared to about $500 a day in Italy (Migration News). These people are creating a negative image for the rest of the immigrants (illegal or otherwise) that are behaving themselves.   This reflect badly upon the immigrant population as a whole, creating segregation and xenophobia from the native Italian community.  From a survey done by the Italian Census in 2000 reported that 75% of Italians think that immigrants are responsible for an increase in crime in the country (Migration News). The solution is for the police forces to crack down on these criminals, and to publicize their arrests.  

A benefit of this solution would be that perhaps it would deter others from getting involved in these types of criminal activities if they knew the punishments involved.  Italy is often seen as being very lenient in this regard, so if they established a stronger more credible law enforcement, it might even make some think twice before trying to come into the country in the first place for fear of being turned away.  One of the costs of this solution, as with the other solutions, is monetary.  The current police force would have to go through new training in order to change their law enforcement tactics.  Another problem might be that the police would have to make sure that when they become tougher, they do not discriminate solely towards immigrants, which would possibly anger these groups.  For this solution to be effectively carried out, everyone would have to be punished more severely, not just foreigners. 

The last solution focuses on the fact that Italy is always in need of migrant workers because of its low birth rate.  But many workers only come over for certain seasons to work, then go home for the rest of the year, which in turn makes the Italian work force fluctuate greatly from season to season.  The solution is to try to convince some workers to stay permanently in Italy to work, the benefit of this being that it would ideally keep the Italian work force strong.  But there are some costs to this solution as well.  It may be too hard for Italy to regulate how many workers to keep in the country; it might be too complicated to make the decision that they need permanent workers without getting too many workers flowing into the country to try to find work.  In this case Italy would be in the same situation it has found itself in quite often, either not enough workers or too many.  

Another problem with this would be that many of these seasonal workers are either bringing money back to their own countries or sending it back to their families; this income now circulating in these countries economies, helping them.  If all of these families that normally spend their Italian money in their own countries were to move to Italy it would probably have a large effect on the economies of these countries.

One of the main problems with a majority of these solutions is the actually cost of carrying them out.  The benefits would have to be made clear to the Italian government, so that it knows that it may cost money in the first place to get these projects going, but in the long run it will be worth it to help reduce the amount of illegal immigration.