Italy is actively participating in the programme launched by the European Commission to attract skilled labour from third countries, in line with the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, called “Talent Partnerships”. The programme is aimed at creating a European framework to reinforce Member States’ initiatives on regular channels of mobility for work, also with appropriate European funding, and to respond to European companies’ needs for skilled workers, producing a positive effect on migration management and the containment of irregular immigration by strengthening cooperation with the third countries concerned.
The first five countries identified are Bangladesh, Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan and Tunisia, all of interest for Italy by virtue of both the consolidated bilateral relations and the size of migration flows from each of them and therefore the presence in Italy of their respective communities.
During 2023, Italy supported two initiatives for the implementation of projects of legal mobility for work, which were approved and signed in recent days, with a total funding from the European Commission of EUR 10.6 million, in addition to 1.4 million of Italian funds.
1) Egypt: an initiative promoted by AICS Egypt and the Embassy, which has obtained a Commission funding of EUR 2 million, to which a further million will be added by AICS, for the creation of the “Italian-Egyptian Employment Centre” intended for the vocational training of workers in the tourist-hotel sector, for employment both in Egypt and in Italy.
2) Tunisia and Morocco. delegation agreement with IOM for separate initiatives in the two countries for a total value of EUR 8,625,000, which is associated with co-financing by the Italian Ministry of the Interior of EUR 400,000 for activities to be carried out in Italy.
In Tunisia, this is an initiative initially proposed by ANCE and the non-profit organisation ELIS to train 2,000 Tunisian construction workers.
In Morocco, on the other hand, the initiative supported by the Italian Ministry of Labour aims to train 500 workers in the mechatronics sector.
Both projects run for 36 months.
The result is a team effort by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, the Italian Ministry of the Interior, the International Organisation for Migration, AICS, together with the private sector.
Italy’s participation in the “Talent Partnerships” is part of the broader migration policy aimed at strengthening the channels of legal entry into Italy for work, including through international agreements, such as the one signed in October with Tunisia and in November with India.
The various international initiatives make use of the new instruments approved in 2023 to expand the regular channels of entry for work: the three-year flows decree and the entry outside the quotas of the flows decree for foreign national workers trained in vocational education and training courses in their countries of origin implemented on the basis of specific requests from Italian companies and recognised by the Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Policies.
