One solution to Italy’s illegal immigration problem would be for it to ask for cooperation from other countries to curb the problem of illegal immigration.  The Italian government has extensive statistics on the countries from which people are coming.  Italy could work together with these other countries to try to stop the immense flow of illegal immigrants into the country.  Italy does what it can with its coast guard, border control, and police to stop these people from crossing the borders illegally, but the other countries could also watch their borders to make sure that boatloads of people aren’t attempting these dangerous trips.  This solution would ideally solve the illegal immigration problem by not letting them in at all, thus reducing various sub problems, like segregation and racism between Italians and immigrants.  It could reduce crime by poor immigrants that cannot find work.  Plus, in relation to this, it would reduce the number of unrecognized workers.  One last large problem this would solve directly is the amount of deaths occurring in the waters between the Italian coasts and other countries, specifically those northern African countries.

Italy could also focus on increasing its border patrol, to decrease how porous Italy’s land borders and ocean coasts are.  Italy already has a coast guard, but perhaps because of the immense size of its coasts (4,720 miles) (Oketh),  it is not sufficient and the amount of officers needs to be increased.  Along with this, the number of inland police and immigration officers needs to be increased more inland, so that Italy can be prepared to catch those who come in without papers.  In this solution, the officers must have to make sure that they are following through in holding these people, and make sure that they are either temporarily detained or immediately sent back to their own countries.  Apparently there have been complaints by some Italian immigration officers that those who they tried to put back on boats or planes to send back put up such a fuss that they ended up giving up and just letting them go.  Increasing officers in the country would sort of meet the same objective as the first solution, trying to control the flow of illegal immigration, reducing the sub problems that come along with that.

A third solution would be to focus more closely on the violence and problems of racism in the country.  This would be assuming that whatever measures Italy is taking to keep illegal immigrants out of the country are not working, so this sub problem must be addressed directly.  One of the problems in the country right now is that a small amount of foreigners are committing crimes, or are involved in organized crime rings, many times for monetary reasons because they cannot find jobs.  These few people involved in crime are creating a negative image of the rest of the legal foreigners in the country who actually have work permits and passports, who are behaving themselves.  This crime has increased segregation and xenophobia amongst Italians and foreigners, legal and otherwise.  If the Italian police force cracked down severely on those foreigners who commit crimes, it might have two results.  First, if the police force worked efficiently for a while, they could make examples of those committing the crimes, deterring others to do the same.   Plus, if the amount of crime by foreigners goes down, they might gain more respect as a whole from the native Italian society.  This increase in law enforcement might make Italy seem less lenient, if people know that the Italian government will actually follow through with its punishments, it might deter some from trying to enter illegally. 

One of the main problems in Italy is its extremely low birth rate, so the work force has been shrinking, and the birthrate is expected to decline by about 13 million by the year 2050, a decrease of 22% (Crane).  This is why Italy has such a pressing need for workers from other countries.  But many of the jobs these immigrants find are only seasonal, they come over to Italy just for the season to work, usually sending their earnings back to their families at home.  While this money that is sent back to their families is good for the economies of their native countries, this fluctuating need for workers has been one of the reasons immigration is so high in Italy.  If Italy could convince some of the workers to stay permanently, it would help keep the work force strong.  The Italian government often goes back and forth between making announcements that it desperately needs foreign workers, then when they end up with too many people at their borders looking for employment, having to crack down and try to get these people out of the country.

In relation to this last solution, whatever steps Italy takes to try to reduce the flow of illegal immigration, it must stick with it.  Italy’s work force is very small due to the low birth rate.  They obviously need foreigners to fill in these gaps but it has to be regulated in some way.  It cannot continue to go back and forth on its stand on immigrants.  Temporary work permits, like the ones proposed recently by the Bush administration recently, would not be a good idea in a place like Italy, where they need to have a steady amount of permanent workers in the country.