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ITALY: Quota for seasonal workers

01 January 2002

On 4 February 2002 the Italian government decreed that 33,000 third-country seasonal workers will be allowed into Italy in 2002. They will enter Italy to undertake "seasonal employment" in tourist, hostelry and agricultural businesses after being "requested and authorised" to do so on an individual basis while they are in their countries of origin. This procedure for recruiting foreign labour is part of the centre-right government's proposed amendments to the 1998 immigration law (see Statewatch vol 11 no 6). The quota will only apply to citizens of countries who are candidates for EU accession (Slovenia, Poland, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria) and countries with which Italy has bilateral agreements on seasonal workers. Italian daily Corriere della Sera reports that Welfare minister Roberto Maroni from the Lega Nord, who signed the measure, said that "some businessmen from Veneto in the fields of tourism and agriculture" were asking for its approval. The measure also aims to ensure that "they will return to their countries of origin at the end of their contract".
The quota for seasonal workers is strictly divided into regional requirements, and in some cases by province. Thus no immigrants will be granted access for seasonal work south of the central Lazio region, due to high unemployment in the south, in line with the government's policy of only allowing immigrant workers into Italy if no Italians are available to fulfil the vacant positions. The vast majority of the seasonal foreign workers are destined for the north-east provinces of Bolzano (13,000) and Trento (7,000), and the Veneto region has the next highest quota (5,000). The yearly quota for 2002 will be approved after the centre-right government's proposed amendments to the 1998 immigration law have undergone parliamentary scrutiny.

Ministerial decree of 4.2.02, available on: www.minlavoro.it/norme/dm_04022002; Corriere della Sera 5.2.02.