Supporting immigration is the easiest way to address steadily deteriorating economic and fertility figures, Italian Economy Minister Daniele Franco says. If immigration continues at such a rapid pace, it will "lead to the suicide of our civilisation", a researcher argues.

„Non-EU citizens offer a resource that should be drawn on,” the document issued by Italy s Economy and Finance Ministry states. It adds that more foreigners are needed to reduce Italy s public debt-to-GDP ratio. In the post-pandemic period, an increasing number of immigrants coming from outside the European Union will need to be admitted in order to reboot the Italian economy, according to Daniele Franco, the country s economy minister.

The argument is based on demographic data expressing the number of retired persons per 1000 wage earners, which has an impact on the economy. In Italy, this figure is 602 retirees per 1 thousand workers, one of the highest in Europe.

If the government wants to boost gross domestic product, the number of those in employment must inevitably grow, and the fastest way to achieve this is to make it easier for non-EU citizens to work and settle down in Italy, thus increasing the country s working-age population, the document says.

Another long-term option is to increase fertility rate and the number of children born to couples with the help of subsidies. That number dropped to 1.18 in Italy before the coronavirus epidemic, Il Giornale reports. According to the paper, if the fertility rate continues to decline, GDP will shrink by twenty percent in fifty years, so the government should definitely aim to increase the working-age population.

According to estimates, Italy needs around 213,000 immigrants each year to make for a sustainable economy. This number is much higher than the 195,000 immigrants who have arrived in Italy each year since 2001.

Vittorio Feltri, an analyst of Italian demographics, warned that „with immigration of this rate, Muslim immigrants will make up 18 per cent of the population by 2050, changing the host country s political, social and cultural structure will forever.” He also pointed out that some effects of this phenomenon are already visible in the outskirts of Western European cities, where a number of Islam courts based on Sharia law have sprung up, in a successful attempt to take over the role of the traditional courts in the area.

„Are we going to be like Belgium? It s hard to say,” he remarked. He stressed the urgent need to recognise that open ports and borders are not the answer to the immigration crisis.

The numbers show that this path leads to the suicide of our civilisation, he declared, pointing out that demography should be a priority for all responsible politicians.