Migrants, demand for workers increased by 68.6 per cent in five years

As also shown by the needs of companies in relation to the flow decrees, the demand for immigrant workers has grown a great deal over the last five years (+68.6 per cent in hirings compared to +19.4 per cent for all planned hirings), bringing the share of foreigners in total hirings from 13.6 per cent in 2019 to 19.2 per cent in 2023. The total number of employment relationships activated last year amounted to 2.5 million, most of them in personal and home care and catering. However, 70.8% were fixed-term contracts and for foreigners, unskilled work continues to prevail, especially in agriculture and green maintenance, and the occupation of blue-collar worker (73.9% of total employment). As the demand for workers increases, so do the difficulties in finding foreign workers, with a 54.8% increase in matching supply and demand (compared to 42.8% for non-foreign workers). The phenomenon of overqualification is still widespread. If Neet - young people who neither study nor work - are in the majority Italian (85.1% out of about 1.4 million), school drop-out is instead widespread among non-EU foreigners (almost a third of them leave school), a rate three times higher than that of Italian youngsters. Among the young Sinhalese, Bengali and Senegalese, more than half do not complete their studies.

I rapporti di lavoro attivati dagli stranieri nel 2023

The participation of foreign nationals in self-employed and entrepreneurial activities is always described as 'dynamic and lively'. There were 659,709 foreign businesses registered with the Chamber of Commerce on 31 December 2023, 10% of the total in the country. The number of sole proprietorships that had a non-EU citizen as owner was 392,489, 2,000 more than in 2022. This is 13% of the total, with peaks in Liguria, Tuscany, Lombardy and Lazio. Wholesale trade, vehicle repair and construction are the sectors in which foreign entrepreneurs are concentrated.

According to a survey conducted specifically for the report, in the last five years there were only 113 news items on migration that looked at the phenomenon from a gender perspective, i.e. 1 per cent of the total 12,468. Migrant or refugee news sources are a small share, stable at around 7 per cent. This is why the study raises the issue of the 'invisibility' of migrants and calls for the development of 'appropriate methodological tools to collect data'. Women are a minority of foreign prisoners (701 out of 18,894) but the majority of mothers behind bars (11 out of 20). Non-EU migrants also have very high Neet rates (39.6 per cent, against 25.2 per cent of Europeans and 16 per cent of Italians). Foreign women have higher levels of unemployment and involuntary part-time work.

In addition to recalling the new Pact on Migration adopted by the European Council on 14 May last, the report summarises the most recent legislative innovations (the Cutro decree had already been the subject of an in-depth study in the 2023 edition) and does not shy away from a stoccata: to the "copious production of 2023, intervened especially on the issues of the control of entry flows and borders" with the crackdown on detentions, international protection and unaccompanied minors, "has not been counterbalanced by the adoption of measures or rules to support the foreign component stable in our country", which is also defined as "decisive" to maintain a stable resident population, given the demographic decline and ageing. From training to women's employment, from protection for safety at work to schooling, Caritas and the Migrantes Foundation consider the interventions 'no longer postponable'.

One of the focuses is on citizenship reform. Starting with the Paris Olympics, the report counts among "the diatribes that bear good fruit" the one on Paola Egonu's alleged Italian-ness. Because it has reopened the public debate on the need for many young people of foreign origin to have access to Italian citizenship by reforming the current law anchored to ius sanguinis. A system that has not worked, if we have almost a million students born and raised in Italy who will only be able to apply for citizenship when they turn 18. This is why, recalling the position expressed by Monsignor Gian Carlo Perego, president of the Cei Commission on immigration issues and of the Migrantes Foundation, the final hope is that "the reasons of reality" will prevail over those of ideology, approving the ius scholae "for the good not only of those who are waiting for this law, but also of Italy, which is one of the oldest countries".