Pandemic consequences more serious for migrant workers

Online the XI Report "Foreigners in the labor market in Italy" issued by the DG Immigration of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies

The drop in employment, the parallel shift into inactivity and the widening of poverty linked to the pandemic disproportionately affect migrant workers in Italy.

This is one of the evidences of the XI Report "Foreigners in the labor market in Italy", published today by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies, which, through data from different institutional sources, gives a detailed picture of the participation of migrants in work and welfare in Italy. Focusing on 2020, this edition gives an overview of the first consequences of the Covid-19 emergency, also with analyses dedicated to the extraordinary measures issued by the government.

There are 2.3 million foreign workers in Italy, about 10% of the total, but 35% of employed disappeared in 2020 (160 thousand out of 450 thousand) are foreigners. Italian workers fell by 1.4%, non-EU workers by 6% and EU workers by 7.1%. At the same time, Italian inactive workers increased by 3.1%, non-EU workers by 15.1% and EU workers by 18.7%. Foreign women are increasingly penalized (-10% of employed non-EU women in 2020, compared with -3.4% of employed non-EU women and -1.6% of employed Italian women) and considerable differences are also recorded between different sectors and communities.

The report shows that, other things being equal, foreigners are more likely than Italians to lose their jobs. The risk is highest for young foreign women, with a low level of education, employed in low-skill professions and living in the South. The same identikit is also at the top of perceived vulnerability, that of people who today fear losing their jobs.

Meanwhile, 28% of families in absolute poverty are families with foreigners (who, however, represent less than 9% of families in Italy) and the incidence of absolute poverty is 25% among families with at least one foreigner, while among families with only Italians it stops at 6%. In the various editions of the "emergency income", an economic support measure launched during the pandemic, the incidence of non-EU beneficiaries fluctuates between 25% and 40%, even though non-EU citizens are only 6% of the resident population.

The report "Foreigners in the labor market in Italy" 2021 is edited by the General Directorate for Immigration and Integration Policies of the MLPS, with the support of Anpal Servizi, in collaboration with the General Directorate for Information Systems, Technological Innovation, Data Monitoring and Communication, INPS, lNAIL and Unioncamere. The XI edition is enriched by a supranational scenario outlined by the OECD and an in-depth study on foreigners and poverty edited by ISTAT.

In addition to the full edition and the summary of the main evidence, published on the website of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies Lavoro.gov.it and on the "Portale Integrazione Migranti" Integrazionemigranti.gov.it, an interactive presentation and a statistical dashboard are available online to navigate through the data on hiring, termination and employment.