The presence of Ghanaians in Italy dates back to the 1980s.

Numbers

In 2010 in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

there are 46,890 regular immigrants from

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

. In 2006 there were 36,540. The three cities with most number of Ghanaians are:

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

and

Reggio Emilia Reggio nell'Emilia ( egl, Rèz; la, Regium Lepidi), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has abou ...

History

In Italy the migration from Ghana began in the mid-1980s, when people came over as students driven by economic motives. The choice of Italy as a place of destination, it is often due to the ease of obtaining an entry visa, and the difficulty of obtaining an entry permit for other European countries. In fact initially the preferred destinations are Britain, then Netherlands and the United States, but many of them, the first citation is available and has been for Italy. Towards the year 1988 also was easier to get a visa for Italy because there were few immigrants, but Britain was more rigid because many Ghanaians actually entered as tourists stayed permanently. The guys of the second generation who were born in Italy, studying, trying to carve out a space, to achieve a respectable economic independence and parents work very hard to guarantee them a relative stability.

Entrepreneurship

''Ghanacoop'' was born in

in 2005 within the National Association of

and it is one of the first non-profit social enterprises run by immigrants on the Italian territory. It's a concrete example of community enterprise, involving an entire community as a whole of its economic activities, social or cultural. The farm, which involves 135 workers cultivating an area of 400 hectares, exports its products to the British market and, through Ghanacoop, on the Italian market. On the local market the product is sold to both distributors of fresh produce, and for firms engaged in processing for the production of juices, fruit concentrates and fruit cut, or, in the Italian business vocabulary, fourth range.

Notable Ghanaians in Italy

* Gloria Hooper, (1992) athlete * Fred Kudjo Kuwornu (1971) Filmmaker, Producer *

Bello FiGo Paul Yeboah (born 4 August 1992), known online by his nicknames Bello FiGo and Bello FiGo Gu and in the past also as Bello FiGo Gucci and Gucci Boy, is a Ghanaian-Italian YouTuber and singer, known in Italy for his numerous songs in which he ...

, (1992) YouTuber, singer * Mario Balotelli, (1990) footballer * Giovanni Kyeremateng, (1991) footballer * Desmond N'Ze, (1989) footballer *

Kelvin Yeboah Kelvin Kwarteng Yeboah (born 6 May 2000) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for side Genoa. Born in Ghana, he is a youth international for Italy. He is the nephew of former Ghanaian international footballer Tony Yeboah. Club ...

, Footballer * Kingsley Boateng, (1994) footballer

References

{{portal bar, Italy African diaspora in Italy History of Ghana Ethnic groups in Italy