Employment (original) (raw)

2019, Civil society monitoring report on implementation of the national Roma integration strategies II in Italy. Assessing progress in key policy areas of the strategy

https://doi.org/10.2838/488002

The first critical point to highlight is the fact that, to date, there is no updated and reliable data that would describe the working conditions of the RSC throughout the Italian territory. k is much diffused; often, this is not the free choice of the RSC but a consequence of the difficulties encountered in finding proper employment; • The work carried out by members of the RSC community is mainly unqualified, such as: metals collectors, itinerant merchants, generic workers, cleaning operators, farmers, bricklayers; • Among women, 40 per cent are exclusively taking care of the house or of the family. With respect to the measures implemented in order to facilitate the integration of the RSC in the labour market, at national level, there are only two initiatives: • Conducting a study to verify the possible transferability of the „Acceder” Model, used in Spain in the early 2000s, to the Italian context. • The implementation of an experimental intervention programme for promoting the employment of discriminated and disadvantaged people, the „DJ Project - Diversity on the job”. Aside these two initiatives and despite the availability of loans and the agreements to which Italy subscribed to at international level, in Italy there are no other measures of national or at least supra-regional scope. Projects and minor activities for supporting the employment inclusion of the RSC have been implemented only at municipal or regional level. Despite the difficulties faced by RSC women and those faced by young RSC and despite the explicit reference to their condition of particular vulnerability in the National Strategy for the Integration of the RSC, there is no specific measure implemented at national level. Also, initiatives aimed at increasing awareness among the majority of society of the benefits deriving from the employment inclusion of the RSC communities are absent. Combating discrimination against the RSC requires, firstly, an explicit but not exclusive approach, and, secondly, a gender-based and an age-based approach to active labour market policies. The importance of such approaches is widely acknowledged in almost all European countries, even without taking into consideration the specific situation of the RSC. In the case of RSC, in Italy, the absence of specific policies and actions to tackle the additional disadvantages and inequality suffered by these two vulnerable subgroups widen the inclusion/exclusion gap. As previously mentioned, the development of such measures is limited, especially because of the lack of data due to the absence of regular analyses on specific employment barriers or disincentives. This deficiency is one of the main obstacles to the implementation of initiatives and/or programmes needed to tackle the challenge of Roma labour market integration.