A huge number of applications to hire non-EU citizens as domestic workers and carers in Italy were filed on December 4: in the first four minutes of the so-called click day, 11,363 requests were filed compared to the 9,500 entries allocated in the government's 'Decreto Flussi', the interior ministry said.

A similar boom was recorded when online applications got underway for non-seasonal workers on Saturday, December 2, when 50,576 requests were made compared to the 39,030 available quotas.

More than 86,000 entries

In total, more than 86,000 entries were recorded for the available 9,500 places for domestic workers and carers.

Applications submitted at the Sportello Unico per l'Immigrazione, the immigration office, are being distributed online in different provinces. They will be processed in chronological order and within the quota limit, according to the interior ministry.

Also read: Italy: How to apply for a seasonal work visa

'Failure fuels irregular work', ACLI

The click day was slammed as "a failure" fuelling "injustice, black labor and illegality" by Emiliano Manfredonia, the national president of the Christian Associations of Italian Workers (ACLI).

Talking about the decree, which each year allows employers to hire workers living abroad, he raised concerns about the lottery-like nature of the process, emphasizing that applicants often meet the job and residence permit requirements.

"The interior ministry set 136,000 entry quotas for 2023: at the end of the pre-compilation phase, 607,904 applications had been filed."

Manfredonia also denounced the annual procedure's increasing complexity, with new documents, costs, and uncertainties introduced each year.

The president of ACLI said his organization worked hard to prepare applications "in the 26 days allowed for the pre-compilation."

However, he described the experience as frustrating, dealing with the hopes of thousands of people "who dream of a better life, but also with the expectations of companies who plan their productive activities based on those resources and with families who need to entrust their nearest and dearest to that person" applying to become a carer.

Calls for redesigning immigration

In response to these challenges, the associations that are part of ACLI called for a departure from emergency-based immigration policies and urged the introduction of visas for job seekers and regularization mechanisms for those already in Italy with concrete job offers.

Manfredonia emphasized the need for comprehensive structural reform to address the realities of human mobility, demographic challenges, and economic sustainability. He suggested shelving the Bossi-Fini law from 2002, which abolished entry permits for those seeking employment.

Also read: Work permit cuts denounced in Italy