The Italian Government has revised its laws on immigrants in the country. The first in the list of changes is the Government law on renewal of foreign nationals staying permit known in Italy as ‘soggiorno’.

The long queues at offices of the Police (Questura), where immigrants sometimes begin to queue as early as 2a.m to an office that opens at 8a.m, to renew a staying permit would now be a thing of the past with applications for the renewals now being carried out at local post offices to be forwarded to the police.

The Government new laws also give concession for legal immigrants with a stay of 5years in the country to apply for a staying permit that will allow them to settle and work in any European Economic Community (EEC) country, except UK, without any further authorization. Holders of the original indefinite staying permit (Carta Soggiorno) will have the same privileges.

The Government has also amended its regulation on family reunion where immigrants in bringing their family to join them in Italy has to go through a tall list of submitting documents with authentication and approval signed from the Italian Consulate in their country of origin. Documents such as marriage and birth certificate originally need authentication from the Italian Consulate after going through a series of channels in the home country. No more such cumbersome process is required, the situation of the foreign worker providing a ‘house contract’ of residence with specific metrication in the list of requirements for family reunion has also been abolished.

All the foreign national, legally resident in the country, need is a photocopy of the spouse or children passports in addition to some basic documents in Italy to process the application.

This has come as a big relief to many immigrants in the country who have a difficult task renewing their staying permit or going through bureaucratic processes in applying for their spouse and children to join them.

The Government revised laws also allows a legally resident immigrant to file for the parent(s) to come to Italy without much complications. The laws before the changes would not allow the immigrant to apply for the parent(s) under the family reunion system if the immigrant is not the only child of the parents. Under the new law, the parent can also apply for a work permit - parents were not eligible to work under these conditions in the past.

Many believe the Italian Government is forced to amend its laws on immigrants as a result of regulations by the EEC.

Italy is the only country among European countries which has for more than four times provided opportunity for illegal immigrants to regularize their stay in the country within the past 20 years.

Getting the requisite documents to live and work in the country has not however given them the privileges they expected with about 90% of the immigrants’ work force engaged as factory hands or doing a cleaning job. There have been strong arguments by the Trade Unions on behalf of foreign nationals against Government decisions on immigrants but most of these have not provided the expected result.

One difference that showed up and clearly drew a fine line between the status of an Italian and a foreign worker was last year when the Government brought in a new law of awarding an amount of €1,000 for couples who have a new baby, perhaps to resolve the country’s dwindling birth rate. Foreign nationals who received the money after putting in an application were asked to refund it with interest, the explanation being the law refers to only Italian citizens.

Despite the new laws, jobs in government establishments still remain beyond the reach of foreign nationals in the country but the relaxation of some of the laws is believed to be the beginning of new things to happen as immigrants in some of the regions are beginning to vote in local elections.