Skilled Immigrants in Rome

Abstract

Skilled migration, taking the forms of brain drain, movements of professionals and job transfers, has become an important component of contemporary migration flows. However, it does not necessarily follow that incoming flows of highly qualified immigrants automatically translate into an effective supply of skilled labour, since immigrants are often prepared to accept underemployment and working conditions that nationals from the local market have refused.This study aims to verify whether the phenomenon of brain waste exists in Rome. We analysed the data of 147,587 foreigners recorded in the City Register Office as being residents on 31 August 1999. Of these, 68,539 indicated their educational level and 73,746 their occupation.The data also revealed that the more stable segment of immigrants to Rome, i.e. those who have taken up residency, is composed mainly of qualified, or highly qualified, persons. Many foreign residents possess university degrees and are employed in managerial and/or intellectual professions. Alongside this important datum, however, we observe that the majority of foreign residents are employed in unqualified jobs, a considerable percentage of whom possess much higher qualifications than those required for the job they do.Analysing the temporal evolution of these data on the qualifications and professions of foreign residents leads us to believe that the phenomenon of underemployment is decidedly on the upturn.In order to understand the cause of this phenomenon, qualitative data from case study interviews have also been analysed. The most common reason why immigrants take on under‐skilled jobs is lack of job offers appropriate to their academic or professional qualifications due to the peculiar situation of the Roman labour market. Other problems, such as the lack of protocols concerning the recognition of the academic qualifications of non‐EU citizens and the language barrier, also play a role.