2004 flows decree was enacted. Some newspapers reported of this piece of news, the text of the flows decree hasn’t so far been officially pubblished. The decree has been already registered at the Auditing Department, now it only needs to be published on the Official Gazzette and this usually takes few days.
This clearly means that the decree is to be soon published on the Official Gazzette.
The decree does not concern another regularisation but it refers to yearly quota the government puts to disposition in order to allow regular employment right from abroad.
In other words, the application to employ someone from abroad is presented on basis that the foreign employer isn’t in Italy the day the application form is given in. In fact flows decree application forms provide for that employers declare, under their own responsibilities, that the worker is not actually in Italy.
We have many times discussed this issue, we have always underlined the evident hypocrisy of a rule that impose to fake that workers are not here when we all well know that the 99% of authorised entries concern citizens who are here of fact and that they then clandestinely leave Italy and go back to their country of origin in order to obtain the entry visa at Italian consular authorities in their home country.
Flows decree text
Quotas altogether regard 79.000 people, workers will be allowed to self-employed or subordinated work (either on seasonal basis or on more stable or renewable basis).
The actual text is still not available therefore we shall refer to the pieces of information we have, of coarse we might run the risk of not being completely precise.
We anyway believe that the information we have needs to be spread out, some reflections are compulsory as well.
Seasonal jobs entries
50.000 entries (out of the quoted 79.000) are limited to seasonal work. Therefore 50.000 people will only be allowed to a temporary residence permit which can last nine months the most, no stable renewable papers are to be released.
This employment category can involve more employers at a time, different seasonal contract can be stipulated. Working activities allowed are the ones whose activities are mainly determined by seasons such as tourism (we refer to hotels, restaurants, tourists villages, shops and other activities set in tourism areas) and agriculture. There also are other activities which mainly work during some parts of the year, these usually work agriculture or fish products.
These 50.000 seasonal work quotas can be used by more than one employer; workers can be employed in more than one firm or activity.
Example – The same worker can sign different contracts with different employers. Jobs must be all seasonal and can be in different firms. Nine months within a year cannot be exceeded. In case more employers than one apply for the authorisation to employ a worker from abroad this worker is to anyway fill only one quota, as stated in a past year Ministry of labour memorandum.
Therefore, even if a worker signs more than one contract, he/she will occupy only one quota out of the 50.000 allowed.
Self-employed or subordinated work entries
29.000 entries are to be allowed on basis of open-end contract or determined in time ones. These 29.000 entries also allow to self-employed work (numbers and working categories are still unclear). These entries are to be allowed to a tendentially stable stay in Italy.
20.000 entries (out of the quoted 29.000) are reserved to citizens whose countries of origin signed immigration co-operation agreements:
3.000 Albanian citizens
3.000 Tunisian citizens
2.500 Moroccan citizens
2.000 Nigerian citizens
1.500 Egyptian citizens
1.500 Moldavian citizens
1.500 Sry Lankan citizens
1.500 Bangladeshi citizens
1.000 Pakistani citizens
2.500 quotas remain available in order to favour the signing of other treaties among countries.
The Romenian example: there are no quotas allowing Romenian citizens entries, in case an agreement is to be signed among Italy and Romania a part of the 2.900 quotas (or all of them) are to allow Romanian citizens regular entries.
9.000 entries still remain available (in additing to the already quoted 20.000), these quotas can be used by citizens coming from all countries, but quotas are very little.
For istance, Romanian citizens will have to “share” these 9.000 quotas with all other migrant citizens aiming to regularly work in Italy.
Migrants queueing
People will rush to offices in order to give application forms in at Local Labour Departments, as it happened past years and as we said in past Melting Pot broadcasts.
Queues will be endless outside Local Labour Departments, in fact people will stand in line with the hope of reaching immigration desk before reserved to their countries of origin quotas finish or worse before the so called free quotas are over.
Interested people will of coarse stand in line, it will be the migrant workers queueing, workers who shouldn’t even be in Italy. Only when the qualified desk is a few steps away the employer, or the person he/she delegated, will arrive to formally give application forms in.
This is, as we usually say in Italian, the “secret of pulcinella”, this is to say a secret that everyone is aware of.
It is likely to hope that police won’t come to Local Labour Departments and won’t try to verify whether people queueing outside offices are migrant citizens without residence papers or not.
We really hope that this won’t happen, everyone will anyway need to act with precaution. It should be the employers queueing outside Labour Departments as law states, or at least it should be someone in charge of this.
The worker himself/herself shouldn’t in fact be in Italy and if found could risk to be ordered expulsion and therefore lose all regularisation chances even if a working contract is already in their hands.
We sincerely recommend migrant citizens to act with extreme precaution from this point of view.
The subdivision of quotas among regions and counties/provinces
At the moment quotas are established on a national basis but the ministry of labour should soon and quickly supply to subdivide quotas among Italian regions.
It will then be Local labour Departments duty to subdivide quotas among provinces, each province will be assigned some reserved and some free quotas (the ones anyone is allowed to use).
We have already said that timeliness in giving application forms in is extremely important: it in fact is a sort of a match, a contest since available quotas are much lower in numbers compared to the number of people aiming to regulirise themselves.
We try to help, to facilitate at least a clear and correct contest we therefore are handling out the same pieces of information to all interested ones. We shall now offer a reflection which could be important, in fact pieces of information are not always correct and precise. It often happens that operators employed in public offices do not give information out up the day offical ministerial instructions are available. It is therefore understandable that operators often do not inform interested people and they simply say “We are waiting for instrucions to come from the ministry”.
Giving application forms in
Remember that, from a clearly practical point of view, when flows decree is published on the Official Gazzette employers hold the right to give application forms in even though in the meanwhile quotas have not been subdivided yet.
Employers will be entitled to give application forms in from the day the flows decree is published on the Official Gazzette. Interested people will have to check the Gazzette everyday since from the day the decree is published Labour Department will be obliged to accept application forms and to release a note with the number of the form. This will “block” the application and prove when forms were given in.
Remember that there’s always a technical gap between the day the Gazzette publishes the decree and the day the actual text is readable on the same Gazzette.
Example – Official Gazzette publishes the decree for istance January 15th whereas in Veneto the text will be available only a few days later. The effective date must be kept into consideration. I even suggest to phone to the State Polygraphic, which is the institute that in Rome prints the Official Gazzette. If you call there you might know in advance the day the flows decree is to be published.
Application forms
Local Labour Department haven’t so far received instructions nor forms from the ministry. Past year forms should be the same since requisites and rules haven’t been changed.
In case this year forms are different from last year’s and integrations are needed, corrections and changes can always and anytime implement already given in forms, therefore we suggest to give application forms in as soon as possible even if forms are not the “official ones”.
Once these forms are given in the place in the list is blocked.