Non-EU workers, expanding alternative routes to click days

The three-year flows decree approved by the Council of Ministers on 30 June defines the entry quotas for non-European workers in 2026-2028 but also puts in black and white the objective of increasing and strengthening the arrival channels free of numerical ceilings and click days. First of all, training in the countries of origin, but from 2026 there will be no limits even for requests concerning assistance to the disabled and the elderly. And the Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council, Alfredo Mantovano, has indicated a new channel intended for 'high labour tension' profiles.

The widening of the entry 'routes' alternative to quotas is in fact the government's response to the request to overcome the cumbersome click day system that employers' associations and trade unions have been advancing for some time now.

The limitations of the click day mechanism are many. Companies and families have to submit applications on a single annual date regardless of when they need the worker. Quotas go away in a matter of minutes and grabbing them becomes a matter of seconds. The arrival of the worker, on the other hand, takes a long time (even more than a year) because the concentration of applications creates a bureaucratic bottleneck and puts the offices that have to issue the nulla osta (the one-stop immigration desks) and entry visas (the diplomatic representations abroad) in a difficult position. And Mantovano himself, in the hearing at the end of July before the Parliamentary Committee on the implementation of the Schengen Agreement, admitted that staff shortages and the adaptation of computer systems are "stumbling blocks" on which "there is a risk of breaking the intentions of a better management of flows".

But the biggest problem is that the quotas envisaged by the flow decrees very often do not translate into regular recruitment: only 16% of the workers requested in the 2023-2024 click days came to sign a residence contract (see Il Sole 24 ore of 30 June 2025). The tightening of controls introduced by Decree Law 145 has reduced attempted fraud and the exorbitant number of applications, but the issue remains.

However, the overcoming of quotas and click days will only take place when the majority of entries are 'out of quota'. In fact, in front of the Schengen Committee, Mantovano outlined a 'gradual' path in which quotas decrease (but do not disappear altogether) and more and more requests for workers are submitted at any time of the year and without numerical limits.