THE IMPACT OF LABOUR MARKET POLICIES ON INTEGRATION OF RECENT MOVERS IN ITALY

Labour migration in Europe rapidly increased since the 1990s, with European countries witnessing an influx of skilled and semi-skilled workers from outside the continent. In most occasions, this movement and settlement posed integration challenges due to factors such as language barrier, cultural set up of the host country, socio-political opinions and limited knowledge of the host country’s geographical set up. In Italy for instance, migrant labourers doubled up comparing the population in the 1990s and today. ISTAT (The Italian National Institute of Statistics) reported that the country has recorded a 400% increase in migrant population over that time. This influx posed integration challenges since most of the migrants were from non-EU countries and faced a language barrier problem. In addition, rampant discrimination, political opinions and overlapping policies hindered these integration efforts. Using the assimilation and conservative approaches, this thesis debunked the paradigms and approaches to migration and integration. The assimilationist approach was regarded as the first approach to integrating movers in Western Europe since the First World War. Britain took this approach in 1914 to resettle Belgian movers who were fleeing their country after the German invasion. The waning unpopularity of the assimilationist approach led to the adoption of the multiculturalist approach. This approach became dominant during the 1960s only to start losing popularity to the civic integration approach during the late 1990s. Arguments against the idea hinged on the conservative approach to migration. Conservatives argued that integrating is not a noble idea. The key point on which the arguments against the integration of movers were hinged is that movers destroy the tapestry of European culture. Being a conservative region, most European countries were hinged on a strict social, religious and moral code. Any changes to their culture by a foreigner were often regarded as social dumping. This often contributed to polarisation between the governments in terms of policy formulation, as most natives rejected the the idea of immigrants as established in this research. This study explored the history of labour migration in Italy, the labour market landscape in the country, relevant policies and future interventions to promote integration. This research further revealed that integration heavily relied on social instruments and channels that promoted language and skill competence as well as effective communication. The study finally established several barriers to effective labour integration in the country, considering the fact that most migrant labourers were employed as caregivers and homeworkers. The duties and responsibilities associated with the above-named tasks relied on good worker-employer relationship which greatly depended on integration. The study concluded by recommending several action plans that cut across the socio-political and economic spheres to help boost migrant labour integration in Italy.