The Daily Dazzling Dawn

Italy | Work Visa |

Italy's Plan to Reform Its Work Visa System: Key Reasons and Strategies

by Kamran Ahmed

June 07, 2024

The largest proportion of non-European Union workers who had entered Italy in recent years were from Bangladesh

key takeaways

Meloni's government set a quota of allowing in 136,000 non-EU workers in 2023, 151,000 in 2024 and 165,000 in 2025.

Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister, announced measures to change Italy's non-EU worker visa programme on Tuesday. She said that organised crime groups were abusing the system to bring in illegal immigrants.

According to a statement from her office, she stated at a cabinet meeting that the government would instead strive towards a system in which newcomers would require an employment contract.

"We are faced with a mechanism of fraud and circumvention of regular entry systems -- with the heavy interference of organised crime -- which we must stop and correct," she said.

A few days before the elections to the European Parliament, Meloni, the leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, made the statement.

In response to corporate demand, she has increased the number of legal work visas while implementing measures to attempt and decrease illegal migration into Italy since taking office in October 2022.

She did, however, note that "alarming" data had been found during system analysis.

There were "totally disproportionate" amounts of visa applications compared to possible employers in various places, especially in the southern region of Campania.

And "only a minimal percentage" of those who obtained a work visa actually signed an employment contract, she said.

This figure was three percent in Campania, from where 157,000 visa applications were made for seasonal work last year, more than half the total of 282,000.

"Regular immigrant flows for work reasons are used as another channel for irregular migration," she said.

The largest proportion of non-European Union workers who had entered Italy in recent years were from Bangladesh, she said.

In that country, "diplomatic authorities speak of a phenomenon of buying and selling work visas", she added, citing a figure of 15,000 euros ($16,300) each.

Meloni said she had lodged a complaint earlier on Tuesday with the national anti-mafia and anti-terrorism prosecutor, but that the government would also act to change the system.

"We will modify the features that led to these distortions" and move ahead on the principle that "you enter legally if you have an employment contract", she said in a video posted online after the meeting.

Meloni's government set a quota of allowing in 136,000 non-EU workers in 2023, 151,000 in 2024 and 165,000 in 2025. In 2018 and 2019, the number was just under 31,000 a year.