"A mosaic of diversity, the cross-section of a country like Italy that needs a project for the future, with investments in training and great rigor in building the common good. The data in this Report are mirror of what we are today, they highlight changes and precariousness: they invite us to ask ourselves what we want to leave behind us."

Thus the cardinal Matteo Zuppiarchbishop of Bologna and president of the CEI, commented on Italians in the World-Rim 2023 report by the Migrantes Foundation, now in its 18th edition, and presented this morning in Rome. The volume was created thanks to the collaboration of authors and institutions such as Istat, INPS, the Ministry of the Interior, Foreign Affairs, the general council of Italians abroad, and the Missio Foundation.

While Italy has long been experiencing a demographic winter, «the number of Italians abroad is increasing and today stands at six million» underlined Monsignor Pierpaolo Felicolo, director of the Migrantes Foundation, opening the presentation interventions. After him, Paolo Pagliaro, journalist, director of9Colonne Agency he invited us not to stop at the statistics but to go to the roots of the phenomena and changes.

First of all, a reading of the numbers of departures against the light: a trend that has been confirmed in recent years is the increase in the expatriation of qualified young people, 44% in 2022 concern young people between 18 and 34 years old, with a growth of 2%. The elderly over 65 are 21%, while the minors are more than 855 thousand; for all, the preferred destination concerns European countries in 75,3% of cases (Europe welcomes over 3,2 million compatriots) while 40,1% head towards the United States. The largest Italian communities are found in Argentina, Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Unlike in the past, Italian women no longer migrate to reunite with men. Modern and dynamic, the Italians who leave their country (over 2,8 million) are driven by the search for greater economic well-being and a more rewarding professional career. «Their number has practically doubled in the 18 years of elaboration of the Migrantes Report reaching +99,3% and 48,2% of the 6 million Italians abroad are women (over 2,8 million)" said Delfina Licata, sociologist, editor of the Reports which together (over 9.000 pages) represent «a detailed horizon of evolving mobility and interculturality resulting from globalization».

A special segment of the Italians who leave are represented by the missionaries ad gentes committed to bearing witness to the Gospel among different peoples and cultures. A chapter of the Report created with is dedicated to them testimonies collected by the Missio Foundation: out of 5.200 Italian missionaries abroad, according to updated data from the Office of Missionary Cooperation between the Churches, 282 are diocesan priests, and 215 lay people in missionary service (with CEI agreement). THE fidei donum they are the "gift of faith" represented by presbyters, deacons, diocesan lay people who are sent by their diocese to carry out a service in a diocese of a mission territory, based on the agreement between the sending bishop and the receiving one.

This is told by the testimonies of a couple with five children who returned from Venezuela; a priest with missionary experience in Albania; a couple from Verona with four children who had an experience in the diocese of Sao Luis in Brazil; a laywoman sent from the diocese of Asiago in Eritrea; a missionary from the Triveneto who lived in Thailand and Monsignor Giovanni Battista Bettoni on mission in countries of ancient Christianity, which today strongly feel the process of secularization. (missio)