The "flow decree" for the next three years on the government's table today

Another 500,000 foreign workers entering the country in 3 years .

After the 450 thousand of the three-year period 2023-2025, the government is preparing to launch the new flows decree which establishes 164,850 quotas for 2026, 165,850 for 2027 and 166,850 for 2028.

The measure should go to the Council of Ministers today and concerns seasonal and non-seasonal workers, housekeepers and carers. The prime ministerial decree aims to correlate the size of the inflows to the needs of the labour market, in line "with the capacity to welcome and integrate foreign workers into local communities", as stated in a draft.

Migrants (Tg2)

Collaboration with the countries of origin and transit of migratory flows towards Italy will be encouraged, aimed at facilitating regular migration and countering irregular migration. The entry of highly qualified workers will also be encouraged.

Preferential quotas will be reserved "for workers from States that, also in collaboration with the Italian State, promote media campaigns for their citizens to explain the risks to personal safety resulting from inclusion in irregular migration trafficking".

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Minister Piantedosi in an archive photo (Ansa)

For non-seasonal subordinate work and for self-employment, 76,850 people are admitted for each of the three years. Housekeepers and carers are admitted in the order of 13,600 units for 2026, 14,000 for 2027 and 14,200 for 2028. For seasonal work the quotas are: 88,000 in 2026, 89,000 for 2027 and 90,000 for 2028.

"It is a decree whose detailed contents are still being discussed at this very moment - explains the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi , interviewed by 'La Stampa' - but with which the government will continue in its firm determination to allow legal channels of entry especially for the benefit of important sectors of our economy". "It is one of the pillars of our action together with the firm fight against entries managed by real human traffickers", concludes the head of the Viminale.

Meloni, migrant decree (Tg1)

With the Meloni government, therefore, there have been almost one million entries of authorized foreign workers in six years. But in reality the actual numbers are significantly lower.

The latest monitoring of the Ero Straniero campaign shows that in 2024 only 7.8% of the entry quotas established by the government were transformed into residence permits and stable and regular jobs : 9,331 applications for the entry of workers were finalized at the Italian prefectures out of a total of 119,890 quotas assigned during the year .

In 2023, the percentage was 13% (16,188 applications concluded against 127,707 quotas assigned). As for the material release of the residence permit by the police headquarters, compared to the 2023 flows one year after the click days, the permits actually granted were 9,528, with a success rate of the procedure compared to the quotas that drops to 7.5% .