ABSTRACT
The phenomenon of immigration seems, by its very nature, to be a catalyst of problems, to pose fundamental questions about our society, and to require adaptation and therefore change. It is enough to think of the incorporation of immigrants in the workforce and the adaptation this requires of them; the impact it produces on often infl exible labour markets; the diffi cult cultural and social adjustment of immigrants to their new country of adoption; and the cultural re-adaptation that their presence requires of the indigenous population itself. All this contains strong and often salutary elements of change and development, both for immigrants and for the society that receives them. Nonetheless, for various reasons, in part psychological, in part social, and in particular as a result of possible xenophobic reactions, a more disturbing, even threatening, aspect emerges from the scenario of migratory phenomena: this aspect is the relation between immigration and criminality.
