Italian employers oversubscribe visa lottery for non-EU workers

Soaring demand for Italian work permits next year has far outstripped a quota for non-EU workers set by Giorgia Meloni’s rightwing government, highlighting a labour shortage that has alarmed business.

Some 608,000 pre-applications have already been filed ahead of Italy’s annual work visa lottery which opens on Saturday morning, according to the interior ministry. The quota for workers from countries outside the EU for next year is just 136,000 — higher than this year’s but still far short of the business community’s pent-up demand.

“We need more people allowed into work,” said Angelica Donati, president of the youth wing of Italy’s national builders association. “More needs to be done to make sure that companies are able to tap into foreign workers.” 

Meloni has sought to cater to both her rightwing electorate anxious about a growing number of immigrants and employers’ demands for more migrant workers. In the wake of a deadly shipwreck off the Italian coast earlier this year, she pledged to gradually raise the number of annual work visas for non-EU workers to 165,000 in 2026.

That would be more than permitted in her first year in office, which was also increased from previous years — but still short of what employers are seeking.

“It is delicate from a political point of view,” said one business association official, who requested anonymity owing to the sensitivity of the issue. “These illegal influxes make people very suspicious about immigrant workers.” 

Italian business organisations have hailed the progressive increase in the quota for non-EU workers as an important first step for tackling labour shortages, but say more will have to be done, given the number of Italian workers now hitting retirement age. 

Italy’s central bank and the national statistical agency estimate that the working age population will shrink by 6mn between now and 2040. Italian agriculture already depends on foreign workers for around 32 per cent of its annual labour needs. 

“In every sector, we need people,” said Luigi Pio Scordamaglia, director of European policies at Coldiretti, the influential agribusiness group. “There is no sector in Italy where we don't have a shortage of workers.”

Italy’s interior ministry, which manages the annual “Click Day” visa lottery, said that among the pre-applications for next year, 260,953 were for seasonal jobs mainly in agriculture and tourism, 253,473 were for non-seasonal jobs in construction and other sectors, and 86,074 were for domestic workers and carers in health and social settings.

The quota will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis when the electronic window for submission opens, with different days for different visa types, though some sectors have their own reserved quota.

Scordamaglia said the increase in legal migrant workers would give Italy’s business community an opportunity to prove that it can manage larger scale migration, including the provision of amenities such as housing. 

“I expect that these numbers can increase significantly once we as companies and organisations are able to demonstrate that we are able to manage in a very fair and correct way,” he said.

Meloni’s government has also pledged to open other pathways for legal migration including through bilateral deals with countries such as Tunisia, which would be in addition to the quota.