The exodus that emptied Italian towns. In six years, 75
thousand inhabitants vanished into the cities
In small municipalities citizens are happier, but more and
more people are leaving because of the lack of services and jobs. Mayors: we
need tax breaks for companies in marginal areas or we risk desertification
GABRIELE MARTINI
Paradoxical it may be, the phenomenon seems inexorable.
Although statistical indicators show that people live better in small
municipalities, the exodus from smaller towns to urban areas is accelerating.
In six years the villages have lost more than 74 thousand inhabitants. To put
it plainly: it is as if Italy’s biggest football stadium had disappeared. In
2017 alone, more than 16 thousand residents left the village to move to the
city.
To tell the story of the great escape that is emptying
Italian villages, we shall start from Cerignale, a small town near Piacenza
(North) that in the seventies had 600 inhabitants. There were the blacksmith,
the shoemaker, the tailor, the barber, a hotel, two grocery stores and four
taverns. Today, it’s left with 127 people, a hotel, a camping site and a small
retail outlet. “The exodus began when the state started giving out
contributions to those who left the fields and sold their livestock. For years
mountain culture has been considered less compared to that of the city. Today
we pay the price for those wicked policies”, the town’s mayor, Massimo Castelli
explains. “But - he warns - to reverse the course is not utopia”.
Quality of life and safety
The municipalities considered “small” are those with less
than 5 thousand inhabitants. There are 5,544 smaller centers in Italy (more
than two thousand divided between Piedmont and Lombardy). There live 9.9
million people, 16.4% of the population. In the villages – according to recent
surveys, people - feel more protected: only 5.1% of the population considers
safety a problem against 15.9% of those living in urban areas with more than 50
thousand inhabitants. Neighbors are trusted (78.2% compared to 66.1% in the
cities) and the inhabitants are more likely to get together (14% compared to
10%). The houses are on average bigger and those who live there have more space
available (92 square meters per inhabitant against 53 of large cities). Living
costs less: an average of 119 thousand euros are needed to buy a property
compared to 270 thousand euros in urban areas.
The statistics, in short, tell us that the quality of life
in the villages is better: 70% of the population of municipalities under two
thousand inhabitants are satisfied with their condition while in medium and
large towns the percentage drops by more than 5 points. Yet something doesn’t
add up: why do small towns empty themselves? “The problem is twofold”, Matteo
Bianchi, Lega’s mayor of Morazzone (Varese) explains: “On the one hand there is
a lack of job opportunities and on the other there is a lack of infrastructural
connectivity. I’m not only thinking about transport, I’m also thinking about
broadband. “Concrete actions are needed, such as the investment of billions of
euro to bring optical fiber even to the most marginal areas”, relaunches
Castelli, who is the first citizen of Cerignale.
Saving post offices
The other challenge for small villages is to increase
services to citizens. Schools, health centers, shops: the recipe is to network
with neighboring administrations. The presence of a post office can also make a
difference. Gianluca Forno, mayor of Baldichieri d’Asti, has signed a
memorandum of understanding with the national postal services in which the
company undertakes not to close down post offices in Piedmonts’ municipalities
with less than 5 thousand inhabitants. “This is an essential service for small
towns. The post offices represent a stronghold that often replaces the bank and
allows citizens to manage their money and pay their bills without having to
travel through valleys to reach the city”. But for Antonio Decaro there is
another requirement to save the villages: to win the battle against red tape.
“It is unthinkable that a municipality with a thousand inhabitants works with
the same rules as a municipality with 100,000 - he explains - Different rules
must be adopted: formalities must be simplified”.
The protagonists of this internal migration from small to
large centers are young people. New families are moving to cities, where
services are more accessible and there is greater social mobility. That is why
the other side of depopulation is the ageing of the village population. In
small municipalities, there are more elderly people and less young people than
in the cities: the over 65 are over 24% of residents, while in large towns it
is 22%. The percentage is reversed if the sample we consider is that of under
25s.
Three points for a fresh start
In the conference “Small City & Smart Land” - held today
in Viverone, Biella - the government was asked to carry out three reforms for
small municipalities: the introduction of a tax advantage for businesses that
settle in marginal areas, the rethinking of the mechanism for the transfer of
resources to municipalities on the basis of square kilometers and no longer
only on the basis of inhabitants, the establishment of an distributive fund for
weak areas as a compensation for natural resources that are born in the
mountains but are consumed by those living in the plains. “Beyond big cities,
there is a great west to be reconquered” Castelli relaunched. If we do it, the
whole country will benefit from that”.
Translated by Anna Martinelli
Pubblicato il 13/07/2018
Ultima modifica il 13/07/2018 alle ore 16:52
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