Empty aisles? How 300 refugees and migrants train to work in Italian hospitals

On the one hand there is the alarm of hospitals that are emptying because it is increasingly difficult to find health personnel willing to work there, and on the other hand that linked to the flow of migrants desperately seeking work and a normal life in Italy. This is why the project that Generali and The Human Safety Net, the group's foundation, have just presented seems to be trying to find a solution to both needs, by training and introducing refugees and migrants to the world of work and at the same time helping to meet the growing need for care in Italy.

There will be 300 refugees and migrants, coming from 18 different countries and currently residing in Italy, who will be given the opportunity to become socio-assistance auxiliaries, caregivers and socio-health workers in the regions of Lombardy, Lazio and Emilia Romagna. Project participants have the opportunity to choose different training paths. The students are then supported in the study of the Italian language, in the pathway for the recognition of qualifications necessary to obtain professional certifications and in the placement at facilities active in the social and health care sector, including hospitals, clinics and RSAs. The project, which started in January 2024 and will end in June 2026, currently has more than 100 beneficiaries in the placement phase, following theoretical classroom training,

The commitment of The Human Safety Net and Generali Italia in favour of refugees and migrants in the country is nothing new. Indeed, from 2019 to date, more than 1,200 people have been trained and 470 have been placed in the world of work thanks to the projects active in Italy. The initiative relies on the collaboration of entities engaged in the world of reception and vocational training: in particular, among the third sector entities, the project is supported by the Milan Committee of the Italian Red Cross, the Community of Sant'Egidio and the Communitas Consortium. Among the training and employment agencies involved are Acof Olga Fiornini, Ascolom, Randstad Hr Solutions, Galdus Formazione, Asl Roma 1 and Umana spa. Finally, the project evaluation is coordinated by the Milan Polytechnic Foundation with the support of Tiresia, the research centre of the School of Management of the Milan Polytechnic.

In Italy today, the over-65s make up 24% of the population. It is estimated that this percentage will grow by 10 points by 2050, while professional caregivers number about 1.2 million. There are 5 million foreign citizens residing in our country, more than 3 million of whom are non-EU citizens, and between 2021 and 2022 there was a 556% increase in applications for asylum and international protection, followed by family reunification and work. For Andrea Sironi, chairman of Assicurazioni Generali, "this training and job placement project looks at one of the most crucial challenges of our time, demographic change and migration, and is the result of the public-private partnership model in which we firmly believe". For the president of the Senate, Ignazio La Russa, present at the project presentation, this initiative "aims to offer new possibilities for help in the health field, at the same time as offering an important hand to refugees, who perhaps arrive in Italy with skills superior to those we imagine and who, however, if they do not have a place where they can exercise or improve them, end up at best doing odd jobs and at worst in the field of crime".