This was decided by the Government of Italy which, having noted the difficulty in finding workers in agriculture and tourism, approved a new flows decree at the Council of Ministers of July 7 granting 136,000 admissions expected in 2023; 151,000 in 2024; and 165,000 in 2025.
A similar concession, higher in number, for the recruitment of manpower, is envisaged in the Rome Expo 2030 project, Focus CH3 Regulatory Framework.
Specifically confirmed was for self-employment and non-seasonal subordinate work in the sectors of tourism-hotel, road haulage for third parties, construction, mechanics, telecommunications, food, and shipbuilding, as well as for seasonal subordinate work the agricultural and tourist-hotel sectors.
As far as the quotas for agriculture and tourism are concerned, specific quotas are reserved for “workers from countries of origin or transit who sign agreements to facilitate regular migration and contrast irregular migration and whose requests for authorization to entry into Italy for seasonal work are presented by the work organizations indicated in the decree and most representative at the national level».”
Furthermore, the go-ahead from the Council of Ministers provides “a flow decree supplementing the decree of the President of the Council of Ministers of 29 December 2022, relating to the transitional planning of the flows of legal entry into Italy of foreign jobs for the year 2022, having acknowledged that the applications for entry for work resulted in excess of the authorized quotas.”
The “supplementary decree provides for an additional quota of 40,000 units, intended for entries for seasonal work in the agricultural and tourist-hotel sectors, based on the applications already presented on the March click-day.”
The Minister of Tourism, Daniela Santanchè, expressed great satisfaction with the approval of the decree.
“From the flows decree comes a new sign of attention to the tourism sector.”
“The sector will in fact be able to benefit from 40,000 additional and qualified foreign resources. Thanks to targeted and qualified immigration, therefore, the government is putting in place actions to contrast and prevent irregular immigration,” noted Santanchè , adding, “Furthermore, after the summer bonus for workers, this is further confirmation of how the comparison that I started with the sector categories a few months ago and has already produced the first results.”
Federturismo also welcomed the provision saying it is a concrete response to the needs of the tourism sector. A statement reads: “The decree recognizes the importance of our sector in the Italian production landscape and the indispensable nature of the contribution of foreign workers. The supplementary decree, which provides for an additional quota of 40,000 units intended for entries for seasonal work in the agricultural and tourist-hotel sectors, represents a further step in the right direction, certain that these measures will facilitate a faster and more fluid integration of foreign workers into the communities and will help to reduce the gap between entry flows and labor market needs.”
Federalberghi on the Same Wavelength
“We express our appreciation for the decision of the Council of Ministers which, accepting the requests of companies, has expanded the contingent of foreign workers authorized to enter our country for seasonal work reasons,” observed the President of Federalberghi, Bernabò Bocca. “We have asked for the adoption of a supplementary decree because the applications for entry for work were 3 times greater than the quotas available.”
According to data provided by INPS and processed by the Federalberghi Study Center, at the time of maximum work intensity, which corresponds to the month of July, there are around 400,000 foreign employees employed by tourism companies, equal to 25% of the total workers employed as employees in the industry.
