In Italy there’s growing tension among low-income retirees about their pensions. Among the EU countries, Italy has one of the highest percent of unemployed population and is ranked as one of the least productive countries.

So the question is: Who will pay the pensions of the retired people?

Italy has now some 70 million inhabitants, about 10 percent of whom are illegal immigrants from the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries. Certainly these immigrants do the thankless, dirty jobs that Italian graduates would never do, but they don’t pay taxes, and they send most of their incomes to their home countries.

Shops for wiring money transfers have become as numerous as shops where one can sell gold jewelry or buy MENA foodstuffs.

Matteo Renzi, Italy’s recently elected prime minister, sounds very much like Benito Mussolini at times: He wants Italy to play a primary role in the European Union, although how he intends to accomplish that goal he has yet to disclose.

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