The author examines in this paper four interconnected issues: the ambivalent nature of work flexibility, which on the one hand makes work more precarious yet on the other seems to give greater opportunities for professional growth; the increasing «social recognition» of non occupational activities such as care or voluntary work; and, as a consequence, the prospects of a realignment between working and life times and the requirement for a new organisation of the protection system to provide answers to old as well as new risks and opportunities.only subscribers can see the full article

Unofficial immigration is difficult to define precisely as it depends on national legislation, which in turn differs from country to country and is often ambiguous. It has many different causes: the attractions of economic systems and labour markets; the institutional creation of illegality by regulatory systems that raise the necessary requirements for legal entry and for staying in the country; the lack of necessary resources if repressive policies are to be more effective; the “liberal obligation” requiring democratic states to respect human rights and welcome refugees; the action of humanitarian lobbies; the bypassing of the rules and the favouring of entries by the networks of relatives and fellow-countrymen. Despite all the rhetoric, this makes necessary manoeuvres of various kinds designed to bring out the hidden part of the immigrant population: 23 out of 27 countries in the European Union have adopted them in the last ten years and at least 5 million people have regularized their status.only subscribers can see the full article

The incidence of immigrants on Italian population is still slight compared with other European countries and is far below the Eu average, yet there has been a considerable rise in recent years. The paper analyses the composition of the immigrant population and the transformations that took place due to the latest regularisation sanctioned by the «Bossi-Fini Law». The authors analyse the changes that have occurred in this context, in particular, the shift in the geographic axis of migrations - with an increase in immigration from Eastern countries, the considerable growth in female immigration, the rise in immigrant stabilisation processes in Italian society, evident, above all, in the labour market.only subscribers can see the full article

The article examines the results of the application of law 30/03 in the light of trends in subsequent collective bargaining and the results of decisions made by the Cgil on the matter. Remarks are given on some inquiries conducted by Istat and other institutes on the influence of measures introduced by law 30 on the Italian labour market. The results obtained highlight that bargaining has mostly complied with the indications set by Cgil and that hints at a general weakening of Italian occupation are becoming visible, due mainly to the increasing rate of forward contracts, especially in the case of female occupation. It is thus necessary to radically modify current legislation.only subscribers can see the full article

This essay examines the various phases in the development that has taken place over a decade in regional legislation on the labour market. It begins by considering the organisational and functional modernisation of labour services, a result of the administrative decentralisation of the late 1990s that implemented the so-called Bassanini Reform. But it was the constitutional reform of 2001, giving the Regions legislative power over «protection and safety in the workplace» that was, for some of them at least, the opportunity for rethinking the role of local administrations in overseeing the labour markets in their territory. Not only has there been a rethinking, more or less serious, of the oranisational and managerial model of the 1990s, but the Regions in particular, on the lookout as they are for areas of intervention that tend to be ignored by central government, have started to experiment new ways of encouraging «quality of work».only subscribers can see the full article

European migration policies face great challenges. After many years of mostly unregulated inflows of foreigners into the EU, it is time to take a new approach focusing on economic criteria and taking the new social and economic realities in the EU into account. The recruitment of «high potentials» must become a cornerstone of a new EU migration policy. With the eastward enlargement in sight, the union must agree on new migration regulations or quotas for the highly qualified from Eastern Europe. Closing the borders to the West for citizens of the new EU member states for up to another seven years - as the majority of member states plan to do - would result in a loss of important human capital needed to further strengthen the competitiveness of a larger EU in the world economy. only subscribers can see the full article

From the analysis of current trends in female occupation and from the specific contradiction between the desire/necessity of women to enter the labour market, and the entire organisation of the market, stems the urgency to establish conciliation policies intended not as «corrective» downstream measures to allow women to conduct their triple roles as wives, mothers, workers but as innovative, transversal upstream policies as the crux of a new welfare. This thesis is supported in the paper through the analysis of a «case study» of a territorial coalition in the province of Arezzo and reference to recent European recommendations on the issue of reconciliation.only subscribers can see the full article

This article considers recent trends in labour market reforms in Italy. We critically review the reform approach adopted in recent years, mainly centred on marginal legislative reforms in employment contracts. The diffusion of flexible labour contracts, especially among the younger generations and women, together with a welfare system still based on employment seniority and job characteristics, have reinforced the segmentation of the Italian labour market and social inequalities. The absence of a negotiating strategy in introducing reforms has also increased social conflict. only subscribers can see the full article

The issue of the family has taken on a new dimension in the political debate and in sociological research, given the impact its changing settings have produced on the welfare system and on its redefinition, as well as on labour market conditions. The article analyses the motiva-tions underlying this particular focus from the perspective of the social change involving relations within the family, those between family and labour market and lastly between family and welfare settings. The author assumes a critical sociological standpoint to avoid the risks of redundancy that the sociological analysis is exposed to when guided by policy requirements providing exclusively descriptive and exces-sively simplistic perspectives. However, it is now important to ask new questions and develop new theoretical and methodological approaches.only subscribers can see the full article

This essay analyses the differences between workers with permanent and temporary contracts in both Italy and other countries of the EU-15, partly in the light of the present crisis that may have worsened the disadvantage of those working with fixed-term contracts by reducing the possibility to renew their contracts. The presence of inequalities between the two types of worker and the consequent forms of segmentation is evaluated both statically, verifying the existence of wage differentials, and dynamically, using transition matrixes to observe how long subjects remain at disadvantageous levels. Finally, in the light of the recent debate on social benefits and flexicurity and the main empirical evidence, it offers some thoughts on the most suitable policies for facing the problems in Italy.only subscribers can see the full article