Foreign-Born Workers Now Make Up 15 Percent of Employment in Italy

Foreign-born workers now make up 15 percent of all employment in Italy, quietly transforming the nation’s economy over the past two decades while remaining largely confined to low-skilled jobs. The research, published in Beginners No More, details how immigrants have evolved from a marginal group into a permanent structural pillar of the Italian workforce. Despite this vital economic integration, a stark occupational divide persists between native residents and newcomers.

How Immigrant Labor Reshaped the Italian Economy

Between 2005 and 2024, the proportion of foreign-born residents among the Italian population over the age of 15 doubled from 6 to 12 percent. Within the labor force, that share jumped from 8 to 16 percent. By 2024, the number of resident foreign workers reached 3.647 million, surpassing pre-pandemic peaks and accounting for 15 percent of total national employment. Author Ivana Fellini notes that this growth reflects a mature phase of migration, characterized by deeper settlement and a sharp decline in unauthorized residency status.

During the early phases of the migration turnaround in the 1980s and 1990s, widespread irregular documentation and informal employment defined the Italian model. However, subsequent regularization programs and the European Union Eastern Enlargement significantly reduced the share of unauthorized migrants within the foreign population. Unauthorized individuals fell from over 22 percent in 2006 to between 6 and 9 percent in later years. This shift helped break the old cycle connecting undocumented presence directly to informal, off-the-books labor.

The Quantity and Quality Trade-Off in the Workplace

Italy presents a unique dynamic compared to other Western European nations, boasting high employment rates for immigrants that often match or exceed those of native-born workers. In many Northern and Central regions, where 84 percent of immigrant workers reside, the foreign-born employment rate is notably robust. However, this ease of finding work comes with a severe structural catch regarding job quality.

Immigrants face intense occupational segregation, frequently trapped in manual, low-end positions with limited prospects for upward mobility. In 2024, 72 percent of employed immigrant men engaged in manual labor, with 40 percent in unskilled or semi-skilled roles, compared to only 39 percent among native men. Among immigrant women, nearly 40 percent worked as service and sales personnel in domestic and care settings, while another 28 percent held elementary occupations. This division persists regardless of the educational levels immigrants brought with them from their home countries.

Where Immigrant Workers Sustain Critical Sectors

The Italian labor market relies heavily on foreign labor to offset demographic aging and a shrinking pool of young native workers willing to take on demanding physical jobs. In agriculture, manufacturing, construction, and transport, immigrants have become indispensable.

Manufacturing, which accounts for a quarter of employment in Northern Italy, faces severe turnover shortages as older workers retire. Foreign-born workers now represent more than one out of four blue-collar manufacturing workers in Northern regions, particularly among younger cohorts. In the construction sector, male foreign-born manual laborers make up 28 percent nationally, soaring to 37 percent in the North. Transport and storage sectors show similarly high concentrations of immigrant workers, keeping supply chains moving despite broader labor shortages.

Filling the Gaps Left by an Underdeveloped Welfare State

Immigrant women play an exceptional role in sustaining the Italian social fabric by substituting for an underdeveloped public welfare and care system. Due to scarce public childcare and eldercare services, families increasingly turn to private domestic help. National social protection data from 2024 show that 70 percent of registered household workers in Italy are foreign citizens, with a heavy representation of women from Eastern Europe, the Philippines, and Latin America.

This heavy reliance on private care work provides employment but often leaves immigrant women in semi-formal arrangements with minimal career advancement. Meanwhile, self-employment tells a different story for immigrant men, who increasingly replace native artisans and retailers. Unlike in many Northern European nations where self-employment is purely a last resort against unemployment, data from labor surveys suggest that many foreign entrepreneurs in Italy view independent work as an opportunity for social mobility and financial independence.

Limitations and Future Generations

While the study provides a comprehensive look at nearly two decades of labor force data, the authors acknowledge certain limitations in capturing the full scope of the informal economy. Official statistics often undercount the exact number of unauthorized migrant workers engaged in off-the-books arrangements, particularly in agriculture and domestic services. Furthermore, the analysis highlights that assimilation theories do not fully apply in the Italian context, as structural ethnic divides remain firmly entrenched across generations.

As settlement matures and the children of immigrants begin entering the labor market, the central question is whether this rigid occupational segregation will soften. Future research will need to determine if second-generation workers can break free from the subaltern incorporation model that has long defined Italy’s approach to international migration.

The research was published in Beginners No More on January 1, 2027.