From 1990 immigration issues have been at the forefront of the legislator’s attention, albeit often with ad hoc and short term policies and laws, such as repeated laws to regularize the position of individuals who had been entering and living in Italy illegally.

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From 1990 immigration issues have been at the forefront of the legislator’s attention, albeit often with ad hoc and short term policies and laws, such as repeated laws to regularize the position of individuals who had been entering and living in Italy illegally.

The Single Act of 1998 (law 266/98- within the single Act the main law on immigration, law 40/98 and other disperse regulation on immigration matters have been transfused) has been the main attempt to reorganize and structure policies and laws with the aim to find a balance between solidarity needs and needs to regularize inflows of migrants.

The immigration policy embodied in the Single Act moves along three main guide lines: entry programming within annual quotas; fight against illegal immigration and criminal  exploitation of illegal migration; social integration policy for foreigners legally present in the territory. Such policy also recognizes a strong role, responsibility  and legitimacy  to local government; the law aims therefore at a more balanced attribution of competencies to local authorities and central government and also a more attentive coordination in order to balance out regional disparities and regional burdens.

Another important feature is the need to program intervention on the short and long term. Art 3.1 of the Single Act provides for a programming document to be set up by the Prime Minister’s office every three years after consultation with other authorities at central and local levels. It is within the Prime Minister’s office that the new system of annual quotas as a tool to program and manage entry flows is coordinated.

The Single Act has been deeply amended by law 189/2002 which has changed some key features with the result of a more difficult access to legal residency in Italy and a tighter link with a subordinate work contract. Entry and permanence into the territory are subordinate to the effective existence of a subordinate work contract; in theory not just foreign workers are more tightly controlled but also employers. Amongst the main novelties are

• programs of international cooperation with non EU countries of joint measures against illegal migration, through prevention and repression of migration inflows before these touch the Italian national borders.
• The new provision stay permit linked to a specific work contract. The legitimacy to stay on the Italian territory is linked exclusively to a specific work contract, with the result that, once terminated the work contract the foreigner has to leave the country. Employers who want to use this legislative tool have to provide however guarantees to the foreign worker of an adequate accommodation and funds for a possible return to the country of origin. This new provision ahs been strongly criticized as it opens the way to undue pressure from employers on foreign workers who risk losing their stay permit if they lose the work contract.
• Regularization of pre-existing situation of irregular stay in Italy have been more closely linked to cooperation by employers in initiating and carrying forward the regularization process (shortly after the enactment of law 189/02 a Decree permitting a one off regularization of those present within a certain date in the territory but who had been living  clandestinely has been enacted; this decree also gave a strong power to employers who were the subjects entitled to sign the “declaration of resurfacing” for each foreign worker who wanted to be regularized)
• Entry flows programming: although main programming is to be undertaken on an annual basis, infra annual decrees can adapt the number of migrants allowed entry and regular work to the effective needs of the work market. Also within these decrees can punitive provisions be included restricting entry and regularization for citizens of those countries which do not cooperate in the fight against illegal migration
• The minimum time to obtain a stay or residency card is increased from 5 to 6 years
• The introduction of compulsory fingerprinting for immigrants requiring new stay permit or a renewal. This provision has been highly controversial as it has been deemed highly discriminatory. The introduction of fingerprinting also for Italian citizens requesting an electronic identity card has not redressed the discrimination as the data from foreigners end up in the police databases, while the Italian citizen fingerprints are used only locally for certification purposes.
• Rationalization of family reunion and restriction of grounds on which reunion can be obtained
• Immediate expulsion of irregular migrant with accompaniment to the border by police authorities
• Elimination of the possibility of ad personam hiring of a foreigner. With law 40/98 a sponsor, i.e. a prospective employer, could request that a specific person be granted visa and stay permit in order to set up a subordinate work contract. Now entry and access to employment can be gained only through lists kept by diplomatic representations abroad.

Analysis provided by: Antonella C. Attardo PhD (History of Law), Italy.

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