Italy will issue nearly 500,000 new work visas for non-EU nationals from 2026 to 2028, a cabinet statement said on Monday, as part of a strategy to expand legal immigration channels in response to labour shortages.

Rome

Italy's government has announced plans to issue almost 500,000 work visas to non-EU nationals over a three-year period from 2026 to 2028. This decision is intended to expand legal immigration channels in response to ongoing labour shortages and an ageing population. The majority of these visas will be allocated to seasonal work in agriculture and tourism, reflecting the needs of Italian businesses.

The new policy follows a previous initiative that granted 450,000 work permits between 2023 and 2025. While expanding legal migration, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's administration continues to enforce strict measures against illegal immigration, including curbing the activities of migrant rescue charities and establishing migration centres in Albania. The government cites a declining population and the emigration of young Italians as key factors behind the decision.

Italy to issue half million non-EU work visas over next three years

She made curbing migration a keystone of her successful 2022 election campaign. Now the government of far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Maloney has agreed to let almost 500,000 documented immigrants enter Italy over the next three years. In a statement on Monday, her cabinet announced that it would be issuing work visas for nearly half a million non-EU nationals between 2026 and 2028. The quotas were determined taking into account the needs expressed by social partners and the actual applications for work permits submitted in previous years, with the aim of a programme that responds to the needs of businesses and is also realistic. The greatest number of visas will be given to seasonal work in agriculture and tourism. It is the second such move from Maloney. Her government also decided to issue 450,000 work permits to migrants between 2023 and 2025. But it comes alongside a tough stance on illegal immigrants. While earlier all the debates in Europe focused on how to welcome those arriving illegally and the rules of their distribution in the 27 European countries, we called for a total paradigm shift. Maloney has curbed the activities of charities rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean and reached a deal with Albania to build migration centres. The expansion of legal immigration channels is part of Maloney's strategy to tackle labour shortages in certain sectors, as well as an ageing population, which fell by 37,000 last year. This is the result of a sluggish birth rate, with 281,000 more deaths than births in 2024, but also the exodus of Italians opting for life elsewhere. More than a million Italians have left in the past ten years, a third of them aged 25 to 34.

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