Safety at Work in Italy: A Comparison of Italians and Foreigners

Abstract

Foreigners in Italy are mainly employed in low-skilled manual jobs where there is a greater exposure to the risk of injury. This study aims to analyze foreigners’ and Italians’ different probabilities of accidents in the workplace, and their perception of this risk, as well as the objective and subjective dimensions of injury at work.The data is taken from the ad hoc module on “Health and Safety at Work” in the Labour Force Survey (Istat) in the second quarter of 2013. This section also collected data on accidents at work and the perceived risk of accidents at work.Our findings identify critical issues for foreign workers from countries with high migration pressure compared to Italian born workers. Overall, foreign men, in particular, workers in manufacturing, especially plant operators and machine workers, have a significantly higher risk of injury than Italians. Among women, foreign cleaners are clearly disadvantaged compared to Italians. There is a discrepancy between the subjective and objective dimensions of the phenomenon, because, in the presence of a greater risk of injury for foreigners, perceived risk is not always significantly higher than Italians.

Keywords

• migrant worker
• accident at work
• perceived risk of injury
• labour market
• Italy