A front-page opinion piece in Il Foglio on 20 February argues that Italy’s annual immigration lottery—the Decreto Flussi—can no longer meet labour-market needs and must be replaced by continuous, demand-driven channels. Citing fresh government statistics, the newspaper notes that only 16.9 percent of the 146,000 quotas authorised for 2024 translated into issued residence permits, while preliminary data for 2025 show a dismal 7.9 percent conversion rate. (ilfoglio.it)
The editorial blames long administrative chains: click-day oversubscription, slow Nulla Osta adjudication by the Interior Ministry, consular visa bottlenecks and delays at one-stop immigration desks once migrants arrive. Employers therefore keep filing applications year after year, but most vacancies remain unfilled, perpetuating informality in sectors such as agriculture, logistics and elder care.
Among the proposed fixes are multi-year sectoral corridors negotiated with regions, automatic roll-over of unused quotas, and digital integration of consular visa systems with domestic databases. The article also urges synchronising the Flussi calendar with university terms to attract international graduates from Italian master’s programs into regular employment.
![Editorial calls for overhaul of Italy’s quota-based immigration system after poor conversion rates]()
For employers and prospective workers navigating these complexities, visa facilitation platforms such as VisaHQ can be valuable allies. Through its Italy-dedicated portal (https://www.visahq.com/italy/), VisaHQ offers step-by-step guidance, document checklists and application tracking tools that help reduce errors and compress processing times, whether for seasonal permits, EU Blue Cards or family reunification visas.
For corporations, the call resonates with frustrations voiced by Confindustria and the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy, which describe the current model as a “lottery that rewards fastest fingers rather than real skill shortages”. While the government has pledged a task-force to streamline procedures, no legislative timeline is set. Observers expect the issue to surface in the 2027 Budget debate, when demographic pressures—Italy’s workforce is projected to shrink by 1 million in five years—will sharpen.
In the meantime, HR departments should not rely solely on Flussi channels but diversify through intra-company transfers, Blue Cards and the impatriate tax regime, ensuring that onboarding roadmaps include allowances for multi-month visa lead times.
The editorial blames long administrative chains: click-day oversubscription, slow Nulla Osta adjudication by the Interior Ministry, consular visa bottlenecks and delays at one-stop immigration desks once migrants arrive. Employers therefore keep filing applications year after year, but most vacancies remain unfilled, perpetuating informality in sectors such as agriculture, logistics and elder care.
Among the proposed fixes are multi-year sectoral corridors negotiated with regions, automatic roll-over of unused quotas, and digital integration of consular visa systems with domestic databases. The article also urges synchronising the Flussi calendar with university terms to attract international graduates from Italian master’s programs into regular employment.
For employers and prospective workers navigating these complexities, visa facilitation platforms such as VisaHQ can be valuable allies. Through its Italy-dedicated portal (https://www.visahq.com/italy/), VisaHQ offers step-by-step guidance, document checklists and application tracking tools that help reduce errors and compress processing times, whether for seasonal permits, EU Blue Cards or family reunification visas.
For corporations, the call resonates with frustrations voiced by Confindustria and the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy, which describe the current model as a “lottery that rewards fastest fingers rather than real skill shortages”. While the government has pledged a task-force to streamline procedures, no legislative timeline is set. Observers expect the issue to surface in the 2027 Budget debate, when demographic pressures—Italy’s workforce is projected to shrink by 1 million in five years—will sharpen.
In the meantime, HR departments should not rely solely on Flussi channels but diversify through intra-company transfers, Blue Cards and the impatriate tax regime, ensuring that onboarding roadmaps include allowances for multi-month visa lead times.
