Detecting the Poor Among Foreigners: Remarks on a Convenient Equivalence Scale

That foreign immigrants are more vulnerable to poverty than natives is a well evident fact in reality beyond scientific research, rich of contributions in this field (Lelkes, 2007; Kazemipur and Halli, 2011; Dalla Zuanna 2013, among others). Newspapers daily illustrate situations of social marginality sometimes so extreme to border on degradation of entire neighbourhoods, usually in the periphery of urban centres. Many organizations working in the third sector (Caritas, Banco Alimentare, Società San Vincenzo, Frati Francescani, etc.) document a chronic poverty among immigrants, even increased in recent years due to the economic juncture Italy is being experiencing (Rimoldi and Accolla, 2010; Blangiardo and Rimoldi, 2013). However, whatever its perception, a problem of measuring the incidence of poverty among immigrants arises when making use of tools designed for a population quite different, the Italian one. The discussion about the validity of the measurement tools involves the discussion about the different households’ ability to convert resources into wellbeing, that means to ascertain whether the Carbonaro equivalence scale, conceived (thirty years ago) for Italian families may be valid also for foreign families.