CHANGES IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM AND SOCIAL TRASFORMATIONS: THE CHINESE MIGRATION WAVE OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE 1990s
In the rest of Italy on the economic level, the main element of the change was the fall in demand caused by one of the longest postwar periods of recession, which particularly hit the geographic markets, first of all Germany, but even USA and Italian markets mainly due to the unprofitable change in currency and the new spread of e-commerce.
The demand for labour in Prato and the employment opportunities created by the economic expansion that occurred during the postwar period could not be met by the local population alone.
Up to the 1960s, the main contribution to filling Prato’s labour demand was provided by medium-range immigration coming from the countryside and the small towns around Tuscany. That migratory movement was gradually integrated by workers arriving from southern Italy, who became predominant during the 1970s. Small towns from the Italian south moved to Prato almost completely, maintaining their sense of identity for years, chiefly because their settlements were concentrated in certain city districts. It is the reason why Prato has been often compared with Turin, although the former showed a better capacity for integration and social mobility.
During the 1980s, the progressive drying up of southern immigration and the further reduced coverage of the lower segments of the labour market by the local population cleared the way for non-EU immigration, albeit in a context of a slower growing local economy and a diminishing number of manufacturing jobs. The new migratory influx concerned a high number of nationalities; these are currently more than 100, but in the 1990s the prevailing nationality was Chinese.
The advent of “backyard globalization”, with its different cultures, religions, customs and languages, introduced an innovating factor among Italian provinces, to which they were definitely unaccustomed.
The Chinese immigration showed peculiar characteristics, both in quantity and quality, and, apparently paradoxically, grew stronger during the years when Prato’s textile industry was experiencing economic hardships after 2001. Chinese workers rarely sought employment in Italian-owned companies. Instead, they established a large network of small or very small firms where they manufactured knitwear and high-street fashion garments. The expansion of the Chinese community and entrepreneurial activities reached impressive levels that rapidly and deeply affected the linguistic, cultural and physical features of large parts of the Prato area. The situation is truly unequalled both in terms of the quality and quantity, and has the potential to produce disruptive effects even in a town like Prato, that is historically and socially accustomed to immigration and integration.