A look at the local growth of the main foreign communities in Italy over the last twenty years

In the field of population studies, the process of spatial concentration tends to raise multiple and diverse issues. For this reason, the spatial settlement of foreign nationals in Italy has gained increasing interest because of its effects on social cohesion, integration programs and urban dynamics. In this context, the main purpose of this study is to assess the spatial distribution of foreign nationals in Italy in the years 2003 to 2023. Following new insights and using a population growth model, the study aims to discover patterns of concentration or dispersion of the foreign population within the different municipalities and metropolitan cities of Italy, making a temporal comparison. The analysis strategy used to achieve the aim is based on a local spatial analysis applied to the exponential development patterns, in addition to the global spatial analysis. The analysis conducted in this study finds spatial inequalities in the pattern of foreign population growth, highlighting areas with different levels of urbanization in relation to the different foreign citizenships considered.