Italy’s Giorgia Meloni opens door to more workers from outside the EU

Italy’s rightwing coalition plans to sharply increase the number of foreign workers from outside the EU while continuing to crack down on irregular migrants crossing the Mediterranean.

Prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s government this week said it would issue 425,000 work permits to non-EU nationals between this year and 2025, which Rome said was part of its plan to promote legal immigration to fill gaps in the labour market.

The announcement followed repeated complaints from employers in various industries – including construction and tourism – about their acute difficulties in finding workers, as Italy’s economy rebounds from the pandemic shock.

The Bank of Italy has also warned that a serious shortage of skilled workers, including in construction and IT, was threatening Italy’s ability to carry out its ambitious €200 billion EU-funded post-pandemic recovery plan.

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Under its new increased quota system, Rome plans to gradually increase the number of new worker permits granted yearly, reaching 165,000 in 2025, while also expanding the categories of jobs for which foreign workers from outside the EU will be eligible.

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Italy granted fewer than 31,000 work permits a year to migrant workers from outside the EU.

This year, Rome plans to grant an additional 40,000 permits to the 82,705 already in the works.

The Meloni government said the quotas were set after talks with employers and unions to assess the genuine needs of the economy.

The government wanted to help employers fill vacancies while being mindful of the “capacity to welcome and integrate foreign workers into local communities”, it said.

However, opposition politicians accused the rightwing coalition of hypocrisy, given its leaders’ historic hostility to foreign migrant workers.

Both Ms Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy, and her political ally Matteo Salvini of the far-right League, have long railed against non-European migrants arriving in Italy, depicting them as an existential threat to the country, its people and culture.

“The government of the right has capitulated,” Laura Boldrini, a member of the centre left Democratic Party, tweeted on Friday after the new quotas were announced. “It’s a very high rate ... a bitter dose of reality for those who have built their political careers by demonising immigration as a national security threat.”

Ms Boldrini said rightwing parties slammed past proposals by the centre left to increase legal migration, describing it as “ethnic replacement” and “an invasion of migrants”.

Since coming to power, Ms Meloni’s government has tried to reduce the number of irregular migrants, by cracking down on humanitarian groups rescuing people at sea.

Ms Meloni was also heavily criticised in late February after at least 94 people – including many women and young children – drowned when a fragile wooden boat carrying around 180 prospective refugees from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and elsewhere, broke apart just metres from the Italian coast.

The Italian government has also pushed the EU to take stronger joint action to safeguard Europe’s external borders, including promoting deals with north African nations to curb departures and facilitate repatriation.

Yet since the start of the year, nearly 70,000 migrants and asylum seekers have arrived by boat in Italy, compared to just under 31,000 irregular arrivals in the same period last year.

In its statement, Rome said some of the permits for workers in agriculture and tourism would be reserved for workers from countries that sign deals to counter irregular migration.

Among the skilled workers Italy will welcome are electricians, plumbers, construction workers, nurses, bus drivers, hotel employees, mechanics and fishermen. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023