Key Points
Such stories bring home an uncomfortable truth: there are scant prospects in Italy for foreign-born workers, however qualified they are, due to a combination of factors including a strict cap on work permits and a high citizenship bar...
Last month the European Union's statistics agency Eurostat said just over 67% of non-EU workers in Italy are over-qualified, meaning that they are stuck in medium- or low-skilled jobs despite having university-level education...
The great majority of the country's 5 million foreign residents are unemployed or have low-skilled jobs as domestic workers, in hotels, restaurants, factories, construction or as small shopkeepers, labour ministry data shows.. DECADES-LONG STAGNATION..
Italian gross domestic product has barely grown since the start of the century, after adjustment for inflation, and its labour productivity rose by just 0.4% per year between 1995 and 2021, less than a third of the EU average, Eurostat data shows.. For decades, Italian governments have failed to harness the skills of migrants and integrate them into the workforce, instead treating their arrival as a cause for alarm, said Filippo Barbera, sociology professor at Turin University...
For non-EU migrants committed to forging a life in Italy, the road to citizenship is longer and tougher than most Western European nations, requiring them to be at least 18 and a legal resident in the country for 10 years before they can apply...
