International Organization for Migration (IOM)

share of positive answers of Italian workers – for both females and males – remains
close to twice that of foreign workers. At least part of this gap may be mechanically
due to the fact that the shorter permanence in Italy of the immigrant workers has
not allowed them to make use of the Public Employment Office yet. 45 In Table 7.7,
therefore, we disaggregate immigrant workers by years of residence in Italy. We create
three groups of permanence: 0–5 years, 6–10 years and more than 10 years. Indeed, the
data show that the share of respondents answering positively to this question increases
with the length of their residence in Italy. The share of citizens from NMS EU27
having used a Public Employment Office increases from 22 per cent for those with
0-5 years of permanence in Italy to more than 26 per cent for those with more than
10 years of seniority in the country. Similarly, for non-EU27 immigrants, this share
increases from 17 to 25 per cent. 46 Nevertheless, Table 7.7 suggests that, even after 10
years of residence in Italy, the access of immigrants to the Public Employment Office
services remains fairly limited with respect to that of native workers.
In Table 7.8, we look at the reported contact with PEOs by educational level of the
immigrants. For both NMS EU27 and non-EU27 citizens, the share of individuals
having visited a PEO at least once does not systematically increase nor decrease in
relation to the level of education of respondents.
The persistent gap in access to PEOs between immigrants and natives may be (at
least partially) driven by a differential access of these two groups of workers to
unemployment benefits (which require a registration in the unemployed registry held
at the PEOs). Or it may be due to limited information about the existence of PEOs
and/or to specific difficulties immigrants face in taking advantage of the services
offered. The fact that the access to PEOs does not increase with education – and
more educated individuals are always better able to gather information – suggests
that information about the existence of these offices is probably easily available to all
migrants. The quality of the services for foreign workers may be relevant, then. As
discussed, a recent survey has shown that about 40 per cent of the (surveyed) PEOs
do not offer services tailored to immigrant workers.
Employed workers: how did you find your current job?
A second question focuses on employed interviewees and asks for the main channel
used to find their current job. We can start by making a first remark related to
the question we have discussed in the previous section. From table 7.2., we can see
that the Public Employment Offices seem to play a negligible role in the matching
process of workers and employers in the Italian labour market. Indeed, less than 3
per cent of employed native workers in 2010 found their job through one of those
offices, while the percentage is around 1 per cent for the other three immigrant
groups. In comparison with other European countries such as the United Kingdom
45 According to the Italian legislation, documented immigrants have exactly the same access to PEOs as
native workers (Ministero del Lavoro, della Salute e delle Politiche Sociali, 2008) .
46 The table does not consider EU15 immigrants because their small sample size prevents us from having
sensible figures when further disaggregation, such as that by years of permanence, is used.
country studIes – ITALY
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