The image of the foreign employee (not from the European Community), immigrated to Italy, remains that of a poor man who sells without licence in the streets. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Without a doubt, they form less than 5% of the workforce in this sector. According to the Ministry of Employment, the number of foreigners with an official work permit was 456,744 in December 1992. Of the 264,338 who have found jobs in the last three years, 93.8% are employed by others, whereas 6.2% are self-employed. Regarding those workers employed by others, 60% work in industry, 32% in the lower tertiary and domestic field, and 8% in agriculture. The number of unemployed is 145,672, of which half (72,347) are registred at the job centres. This number, despite the recession, has not offered any increase in 1993 (only 4,500 more at a national level). The type of work which they carry out forces us to deny the accusation that they steal the workplaces from Italians. They take on the type of work which both young and adult Italians, men and women, refuse to do because of the conditions offered and suffered. Research, carried out on integration within Companies, gives positive indications. The number of self-employed remains low however, with the only recent data available being that on the formation of cooperatives. Immigration in order to seek work or free from difficult and hopeless living conditions, together with the illusion of well-being and freedom in the West, make us recognize that immigration will not be stopped through legislation.

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Short Survey work unemployment immigrant Italy law licence Europe employment human