Foreign worker employment in Italy has been hit by COVID harder than that of Italian workers, with a drop of 11.2% in non-EU worker employment in the second trimester of 2020 compared to the previous year. EU citizen employment meanwhile dropped by 8.2%.
A new report by the UN's International Labour Organization (ILO) reveals that migrants earn up to 42% less than national workers in high-income countries, with women worse off than men. The COVID-19 pandemic will likely exacerbate the pay gap.
A year ago, Alpha Diallo's life changed. The 41-year-old refugee from Guinea started an internship at Leroy Merlin, one of more than 120 companies included in the UNHCR project 'Welcome: Working for Refugee Integration'.
Italian authorities have uncovered systematic illegal labor exploitation of migrants on a farm in the Milan area. The farm and all its assets have been seized, and seven people are under investigation.
The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to derail Germany's push to integrate its growing migrant population. Largely employed in the services sector, migrants face job loss, isolation and contracting the virus at a higher rate than natives. Foreign nationals even grapple with intensified racism due to the pandemic.
Thousands of migrant strawberry pickers from Morocco are trapped in Spain. Local groups call it a humanitarian crisis. Meanwhile, companies are trying to end their dependence on Moroccan workers.
The Italian union Flai-Cgil has reported that several volunteers at informal migrant settlements around Puglia "were heavily threatened" and were denied the right to help.
A new, free app called Workeen was launched in Italy on the occasion of World Refugee Day. It is to help migrants, refugees and asylum seekers find work through a "serious game."
The Italian research center CREA said that about 5 million foreigners now live in Italy, with 60% (3.1 million) calling rural parts of the country home. This marks an increase in rural foreign population of over 70% in the past decade.
Italy's governing coalition parties have finally agreed to introducing changes to employment permits for migrants in the country. The four coalition parties hope the measures will benefit migrants as well as help sectors hit by the coronavirus.
Germany is turning to its migrant and refugee communities for help in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Anticipated shortages of medical staff and farm workers for this year's harvest mean jobs may be opened up to those who are normally not permitted to work.
The Skilled Immigration Act is due to come into force on March 1. It will allow foreigners from non-EU countries and with certain skills to apply for work permits, and move to Germany using legal channels. Let's find out more.