New data showed that Italy’s population stabilized after 12 years of decline, mainly due to increased immigration.

The figures may seem surprising given right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s hard line against migration — including by pioneering the practice of setting up “return centers” in which prospective migrants are sent to third countries to have their asylum applications processed. But her government has also eased work visa requirements for non-EU citizens, in some ways mirroring the practices of the left-wing government in nearby Spain.

Madrid has, however, gone further by moving to regularize nearly half a million undocumented migrants and by courting many more foreigners, a push that its socialist prime minister has argued is helping drive an economic boom.