World of work

Because without migrants the economy will not hold up

The company must act as an active interlocutor by asking the state for an optimisation of the arrival process of foreign labour resources

by Tommaso Frattini and Chiara Medioli Fedrigoni

21 October 2025

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

It is autumn, thousands of animals fly over our heads every year, in search of better conditions. As part of the animal kingdom, humans also migrate. Young Italians migrate a lot, and often do not return. Migration plays a central role in economic development and social change: if job opportunities are discovered, people move on. Hein de Haas, director of the International Migration Institute (Oxford University), makes this very clear in Migrations (Einaudi, 2024), showing the clear economic interest in having more and better coordinated immigration in Europe.

In a country with a declining population such as Italy (a trend that cannot be reversed in the medium term), without new people coming in over the next three to five years, many companies are condemned to unhappy degrowth, in addition to the collapse of the pension and healthcare system for the entire country .

So far, immigration in Italy has been beneficial not only for companies but also for the country: the balance between government revenues and outgoings attributable to immigration is largely positive (+ EUR 3.2 billion in 2022 according to estimates in the IDOS report), despite the fact that it is a complex process fraught with difficulties for everyone, first and foremost for the migrant.

Unioncamere estimates the 2025 need at 600,000 new workers. Where do we find them?

Not from Southern Italy (no one moves to Italy for a low wage, losing cheap housing, free grandparents babysitting, etc.) nor from the cohorts of women who are now underemployed because they are burdened with caring for large and small family members. Not from Eastern European countries: Poland and Croatia no longer export workers to us, neither in agriculture, nor in construction, nor in the HoReCa sector; on the contrary, they have made government agreements to import workers from faraway countries such as Nepal and the Philippines. The workers who will fill the Italian demographic gaps will therefore come from non-European countries.

Nor will we choose them only from among specialised profiles such as doctors, computer scientists, or nurses: the country already needs legions of farmers, waiters and barmen, labourers, and carers. We ourselves are a nation of low specialisation: the Italian schooling rate in 2023 indicates that 30.6 per cent of the population aged 25-34 has a tertiary qualification (university, AFAM or ITS), well below the European average of 42 per cent, second to last in front of Romania. The labour corridor experiment succeeds in importing medium-high level professional skills ready abroad, but touches very few individuals.

The low-skilled migrant, who arrives at his own risk and expense, can enter with the Fluxes Decree (680,000 requests from Italian companies in 2024. Visas granted by the government: 151,000. Permits actually issued due to assorted inefficiencies in the management of paperwork: 9,000). Or, if from conflict zones, by requesting refugee status (waiting time 8-14 months to obtain a temporary C3 permit with authorisation to work, and markets, as we know, hate uncertainty).

Nowhere on the C3 form does the State ask "do you have a qualification? What work did you do in your country before leaving?" to facilitate a possible job placement, instead taking an interest in religion, or asking if you did your military service.

Today, companies arm themselves with patience and trust to hire non-EU workers. Only the largest ones are equipped to do so, but Italy is a country of SMEs. Many ETS (Third Sector) are doing their utmost to help with the other macro issues related to the integration of the person, after the visa: housing, language, transport (the Italian State for some years now no longer recognises the validity of driving licences taken in Sri Lanka, for example, cutting the legs out from under those who could be drivers, carers...). On 10 November in Verona a meeting just for companies and ETS, moderated by Sebastiano Barisoni, will discuss the possible ways forward at the present time, with European examples.

The manager, the company must position itself as an active interlocutor and proposer of labour and social policies, asking the state for a decisive optimisation on the process of arrival of foreign labour resources.

Whoever runs a company uncovers inefficiencies every day: waste, production errors, slow-moving warehouses... Here we are faced with macro inefficiencies in a process that harms everyone, and whose cost to the country we must be aware of. There is a huge opportunity to do better.

University of Milan, Rockwool Foundation Berlin

Flora Fund

On Monday 10 November 2025 from 9 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. at M15, Verona Sud, there will be a meeting Work without borders: tools to accelerate the labour insertion of migrants and refugees. A structured discussion just for enterprises, institutions and third sector, for measurable and replicable solutions. Moderated by Sebastiano Barisoni (Radio 24) and Riccardo Haupt (Will Media/Chora)