Occupational health problems of migrant workers : the Italian situation

Migrant workers are becoming more and more represented in the Italian productive tissue. Among 2,35 million immigrants are assessed by the National Institute for Statistics (ISTAT), in the first three-month period of 2008. Among them, 71,4% are active workers (996,000 men and 682,000 women), mostly living and working in the northern part of the country. According to the annual report of the National Italian Institute for the insurance of Occupational Accidents and Diseases (INAIL), the increase of immigration is accompanied by an increase of the total work accidents, which have grown of 8,7%. Work injuries involving migrants are 15% of the total, which fatalities involving mainly Rumanians, Moroccans and Albanians. 14,5% of the occupational accidents are reported in the construction sector, with more than 20,000 notifications/year; a further sector in which a significant increase of occupational accidents is reported is household work, with an increase of 24% compared with 2005. These figures do not take into account occupational accidents occurred in illegal migrants (no less than 500,000). This makes data from agriculture poorly interpretable, because most of illegal immigrants are employed in this sector. The data on occupational diseases in migrants are sparse and not fully interpretable, but one can assume that, being hardly reaching by training and educational programmes due to linguistic and cultural barriers, they can be at higher risk for the same levels of exposure, compared to Italian workers. On the other hand, the number of foreign workers insured against occupational injuries and diseases is increased of 19,5% from 2006 to 2007, and of 36,9% in comparison to 2003. Another significant trend is the increase of the total amount of foreign entrepreneurs: they are mainly represented in breeding and agriculture (nearly 2.500), but their number is also relevant in other sectors, such as constructions and trade.