Lombardy a forerunner in programmes to attract workers from abroad

Integration and work. And then the demographic winter, together with the flight of young people from Italy. The role of foreign immigrants within a complex historical moment for the national labour market is the topic placed at the centre of the debate by Confindustria Lombardia. Which, with the patronage of the Lombardy Region and in collaboration with Assolombarda and Confindustria Bergamo, organised the event 'Internationalisation and human capital: Lombardy and its technical-professional supply chain protagonists in the world.

The objective is to outline possible solutions, in line with the regional development model and within a national and European framework, represented by the Mattei Plan framework.

The starting numbers are indeed unequivocal: in the four-year period 2025-2029 there is an estimated need for about 617,000 foreign workers in the private sector, 245,000 of whom in industry alone. Lombardy is the region where more than 146 thousand workers are expected to be needed, 24% of the national total. How to act? In the face of the continuous exodus of young Italians, the only possible way, while waiting for demographic trends to reverse, is to successfully recruit personnel from abroad. A scheme that local business associations have already initiated.

"Foreign workers," explains the president of Confindustria Lombardia, Giuseppe Pasini, "are emerging as an essential resource, not only to fill employment gaps in key sectors, but also to bring skills, cultural diversity and flexibility. The key to meeting this challenge is the collaboration between companies, regional institutions and training bodies such as ITS, aimed at creating an optimal context from the point of view of work, housing and integration. Moreover, for Confindustria Lombardy, the framework provided by the Mattei Plan and its regional declination, with the construction of bilateral relations with strategic countries and collaboration with institutions, represents an opportunity that Lombardy companies are already ready to seize".

"Our province, too," adds the president of Confindustria Bergamo Giovanna Ricuperati, "is heavily invested by a prospect of demographic decline that is jeopardising the future of our territory. Hence our commitment to get in tune with the younger generations, to contribute to the strengthening of the education chain, and to help companies be more attractive. In this framework,' Giovanna Ricuperati continues, 'it has also become urgent to envisage international projects to facilitate the qualified arrival of young people, such as the ITS Tecnologie per la Vita course in Bergamo, which has become a model for the national Mattei Plan call for applications, and which has brought 70 Ethiopian and Egyptian students to our area, who will soon be involved in internship courses in our companies. Another strategic element is the 'Live in Bergamo' project that our Association is working on, through the creation of a real estate fund, with the aim of combining urban regeneration, meeting the needs of businesses and promoting real social integration. Adequate housing quality, in fact, is an essential condition for welcoming those who seek new opportunities for work and, more generally, for life in our area'.