The value of inclusion: funding the immigration market

There are countries, such as Italy, where immigration is needful considering labor shortage and social circumstances. Unfortunately, immigration has not been considered a source of value yet.

The existing need

Official data estimates that more than 24 million migrants live in Europe, and 4 million just in Italy, where there were less than 150 thousand in 1970 and 1.5 million in 2000. Italy also has the highest ratio of migrants to the total population compared to other European countries: 6.6%, of which 54,8% are between 25–54 years. This means that the majority of migrants in Italy are in their working age in a country where nearly 4 million new jobs will be needed by 2025.

Historically, half of migrants entered Europe through Italy

For every Italian citizen leaving the country, 2.3 migrants enter it. Nowadays, illegal migrants are ~630 thousand just in Italy, which leads to an economy of about 1% of GDP, 15 billion euros.

Nevertheless, immigration is not yet facilitated: migrants typically spend years looking to understand how to approach the system and legally stay in Europe. In fact, the biggest issue migrants face is understanding the process because there are many stakeholders involved, complex procedures and the market is very fragmented. From a migrant point of view, this leads to confusion and a lack of visibility on timelines, legal procedures, and required documents.

In short, the typical journey of a migrant includes ONGs, Hotspots, and centers (CPR, CPA, SAI, CAS, etc, there are more than 9 thousand centers in Italy), CAF, Patronages, and Social Cooperatives, which generically assist migrants in dealing with administrative and bureaucratic requirements. They usually also visit immigration lawyers, that provide assistance in matters related to processes and legal obligations, and consulting agencies. Then they have to find a job, so they ask for help from local communities such as the church and professional placement agencies such as Randstad. Finally. and most importantly, they have to face the government, the law system, and the bureaucratic infrastructure which are still not ready to properly manage the phenomenon.

The immigration process usually lasts more than 2 years and all the stakeholders mentioned play different roles. Migrants are usually stuck between bureaucratic procedures, without anybody guiding them.

Current market trends

Several players are trying to build in this field: many are the angles explored, with the large majority focusing on digital products at the intersection of finance and legal:

1. Drive the legal process
   As shown, the most complex problem migrants must face is understanding the legal processes and filling out all the necessary documents required by the new country. In the USA, Companies like Lawful and Boundless were born to help migrants to overcome bureaucracy by assisting individuals and families navigate immigration paperwork and processes. Their software turns tedious government forms into simple questions the migrant can answer online in under 2 hours, saving time and avoiding common problems.
2. Give access to credit
   Another severe problem migrants face is that they have no credit history in the new Country. In fact, credit bureaus are rarely coordinated or joined across nations and this is even more problematic across continents. Some products are building global credit scoring systems. They aim to translate international credit data into a local-equivalent score and reports in a format familiar to local underwriters, who use it to assess migrant’s credit scores based on historical data. NovaCredit and Pillar are two examples, the latter offers a service that helps migrants build their credit scores, allowing them to open new bank accounts and manage money.
3. Easing remittances
   Migrant workers are used to sending money back to their home countries to support their families. The global remittance market is projected to reach $1,200 billion by 2030. One of the most famous companies trying to build a product out of this need is Rewiree, but there are many other options all over the world.
4. Jobs and social inclusion
   The real pain for migrants is still the integration into society. We know that work, with its symbolic contribution, is one of the decisive aspects of ease of integration. Beyond the economic value, work triggers positive dynamics both at an individual and community level. This is why many initiatives started to facilitate job searches. For example, in UAE, Skillbee connects migrant workers with trusted employers. In Italy, Pickme has just been launched with the same thesis.

Our investment theses

A one-stop legal platform for easing the process at a fraction of the costs
Every non-EU citizen must apply to receive a residence permit, but the process for asylum seekers is different and more complex. Understanding and filling out all the necessary documents to apply to be integrated into the new country is a pain, with many making mistakes filling out their own applications. Nowadays, migrants only have two solutions:

1. A mix of CAF, Integration Offices, Agencies for Foreigners, and friends;
   Cheaper, but unstructured and not manageable. This leads to years of waiting, where migrants can not work legally and thus be included in Society.
2. Immigration Lawyers:
   Which is generally expensive (€ 2k+) and so not accessible to the large majority of people in need.

We believe that an easy and understandable platform that can support migrants in following the procedure and filing legal documents can be a game-changer, even if their standardization is not easily obtainable with a simple platform. In this area, there is an opportunity to innovate with a product-centered company.

Enhance social inclusion with upskilling and work
Statistics say that foreign citizens play a key role in the Italian labor market: their contribution accounts for 9% of PIL. At the same time, surveys claim that nearly 4 million new jobs will be needed by 2025, much of this due to natural employee turnovers, while 1.35M job openings will not be filled. The majority of those are in the same sectors where the largest percentage of non-EU citizens work: agriculture, Ho.Re.Ca, domestic services, and construction with an average annual income lower than 20K. Considering the number of migrants is growing every year, we believe that a platform upskilling migrants and connecting them to open job opportunities would be a way to accelerate their integration into society and at the same time find the right profile for a new job opening.

With a big vision and in the long term, we envision migrants could benefit from a super-app, with which they can be fully integrated into society by a set of ancillary complementary services such as banks, courses, job placement, and legal suopport.