Immigration of skilled workers, deportations, asylum seeker benefits – Germany’s Parliament has approved a comprehensive policy bundle about immigration and asylum. The new measures will open up the labor market to skilled migrant workers on the one hand, and facilitate the return and deportation of rejected asylum seekers on the other hand.
More men than women migrants are entering paid employment in Germany, according to government figures. The percentage of unemployed migrant men who got jobs has increased significantly in the past three years, while the situation for women has remained consistently poor.
The Italian NGO Doctors for Human Rights (MEDU) has published a report on the situation of migrant workers in the Gioia Tauro plain in southern Italy. The report revealed that the situation is worsening for the foreign workers exploited in the fields.
In the birthplace of the mafia, its tentacles have moved beyond drug dealing and white collar crime to taking control of Italy's farmland and its workers. Megan Williams travelled to one area south of Rome where a community of Sikh agricultural workers, long exploited and even enslaved by criminal groups, and an Italian activist, are fighting back.
In a new report, the Oxfam charity said that as a result of the Salvini decree, more than 4,000 young workers in migrant reception have been out of a job since the start of the year. It said the number could rise to 15,000 by the end of 2019, with a social cost of 200 million euros.
An investigation conducted by the New York Times has found that small Turkish firms harvesting hazelnuts for well-known brands such as Ferrero, Godiva, and Nestlè often illegally exploit Syrian refugees.
The number of non-EU citizens moving to Germany for work has risen by about 20 percent for a third year in a row. Figures show most of these foreigners are men from India, China and the United States.
Local institutions in Calabria are working on providing 30 housing units to the new San Ferdinando tent camp, in order to gradually clear the camp. A migrant from Senegal died last week in a fire at the camp.
Two new government schemes designed to bring in short-term migrant workers to cover the shortfall created by Brexit could increase exploitation and leave low-paid workers vulnerable to abuse, think charities like Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX) and the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford.
An operation by police in southern Italy has led to the arrest of three people and parole for two others. Those under investigation had been found to have exploited two Romanians and one Malian over the past two years on two farms, paying them almost nothing. The inquiry found that the two female Romanian farm workers had also been raped.
Misunderstandings between German-trained care workers and foreign colleagues can be a source of tensions, a study says. The number of carers in Germany who trained abroad has recently risen dramatically.
Finding work for refugees and migrants can be difficult at the best of times, but in Greece, hit hard by the economic crisis, that challenge can be even greater. But for a lucky few, a job or help setting up a business provide a ray of light and the promise of a brighter future.