Italy’s Visa Lottery for Non-EU Workers Flooded With Over 600,000 Applications From Italian Employers

Italy’s Visa Lottery for Non-EU Workers Flooded With Over 600,000 Applications From Italian Employers

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Italian workers have filed more than 600,000 pre-applications for non-EU workers ahead of the opening of the annual work visa lottery.
  • The majority of applications, around 260,950 of them, were filed for seasonal jobs in tourism and agriculture.
  • Agribusiness group director says that Italy is dealing with worker shortage in all sectors, without exception.

The demand for foreign workers has increased significantly in Italy, with the authorities saying that the number of pre-applications filed by Italian employers for 2024 has already passed the set quota by four times.

Emphasising the ongoing labour shortage across different sectors in the country, Meloni’s government set the quota for workers from non-European Union countries to 136,000 for next year, which is higher than the one set for this year.

However, despite the quota for non-EU workers being increased, the high number of applications that have already been filed suggests that the country is in need of many more foreign workers.

According to the Ministry of Interior of Italy, the country’s employers have already filed around 608,000 pre-applications.

Such a high number of applications, which is four times more than the government’s quota, has been made ahead of the annual work visa lottery of Italy that will officially open tomorrow morning, December 2, Financial Times explains.

As data from the Interior Ministry show, of the total number of pre-applications for 2024, around 260,950 of them were for seasonal jobs in tourism and agriculture. Moreover, another 253,470 pre-applications were for non-seasonal jobs in construction and similar sectors, and around 86,070 were for domestic workers as well as for carers in health, among others.

According to the Financial Times, the allocation of the quota will follow a first-come, first-served approach once the electronic submission window is open. Various days will be designated for different visa types, although certain sectors have specifically reserved quotas.

Commenting on the country’s current situation, the president of the youth wing of the national builders association, Angelica Donati, said that more people need to be allowed to take up jobs in Italy. Donati further said that the authorities need to take additional measures and allow Italian companies to bring in more workers.

We need more people allowed into work. More needs to be done to make sure that companies are able to tap into foreign workers.

Angelica Donati

The director of European policies at Coldiretti, Luigi Pio Scordamaglia, also commented on the matter, saying that all sectors in Italy, without exception, are facing a shortage of workers.

Scordamaglia also said that they support the increase in legal migrant workers, as by getting more foreign workers businesses can prove that they can manage larger-scale migration.

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