Looking for a caregiverbut to no avail. Thousands of elderly people and families in difficulty, in need of assistance. In reality, there would be carers, but they lack residence permits. We are talking about the domestic employment market, one of those in which illegal work is most widespread.
The law provides for up to 1 year of imprisonment for those who “hire” illegal domestic workers or carers, but it is almost impossible to find a regular domestic employee. The operators in the sector – the vast majority of whom are immigrants from South America, Eastern Europe and men or women from Sri Lanka – form a veritable army, according to the numbers in the Idos Immigration dossier. There are 121 thousand immigrants registered in Naples, 241 thousand in Campania.
Of the latter, only 96 thousand have a regular contract and 63.7% of them are employed in domestic work. That is, we are talking about approximately 48 thousand people in the cityhalf of the total. In short, the other 73 thousand Neapolitan migrants work illegally. Figures in hand, non-Italian irregular housekeepers and carers, in the shadow of the Vesuvius, there are at least 40 thousand.
Black work
The estimate just made is downward and takes into consideration only registered migrants. In fact, from the assistance centers and the unions, it emerges that just «2 carers out of 10» they are regular.
In certain cases, a sort of gangmastering of the four walls occurs. In other cases, it is the carers who threaten complaints against the employers. In the middle, there are thousands of needy elderly people and relatives in difficulty, who come to the help desks looking for a carer without finding legally satisfactory answers.
And workers in difficulty. There is a bureaucratic-social vacuum: the law provides for high fines, up to 12 thousand euros, for those who do not communicate and register the employee with INPS. But you can also end up in prison if anyone who takes a carer into their home without a residence permit is discovered (from 3 months to 1 year). Regularize workersHowever, it is an arduous operation: you need a residence permit and a certificate of housing suitability.
The center
This can be understood, for example, at Kusik Multiservice pm, in the historic centre. An assistance office for migrant women looking for work. The owner is Paola Kusika young woman of Polish origin. There are many difficulties, but there is also a great desire to help. Particular destinies cross paths on the faces of the caregivers, but they touch on global history.
Many domestic workers are Ukrainian mothers, who care for the elderly here and send money to Kiev: “By doing this, if I send them money, my daughter doesn’t go to the front”, explains Natalia. This and other events arrive at Multiservice on a daily basis.
«This is a paperwork office – he says Monica Kusik, his mother – Many carers, in practice, pay for accommodation with their work. Also because they don’t know where to live. Unfortunately, out of 10 carers in the city, 8 are illegal and he does not have a residence permit.” There is even a “black market, where accommodation is resold among carers”, some operators whisper.
In addition to the difficulties of obtaining a residence permit, there are those for housing suitability, another fundamental requirement to achieve the status of regular caregiver. «The criteria for obtaining housing suitability are difficult to satisfy – confirms Monica – Sending the paperwork is cumbersome, and the housing suitability obligations are too difficult to comply with. The Municipality recently rejected a request for Posillipo.” How come? “Because the window of the accommodation was too wide: it exceeded the prescribed limit of 8 centimetres.”
When 8 centimeters, in the bureaucracy and legislative vacuum, become kilometers to be covered towards the regularization of thousands of lives. And towards the fight against millions of evaded euros, which remain in the limbo of illegal work.
The related industry
Domestic work generates a gigantic underground economy, amounting to around 20 million a month in Naples alone, between carers and housekeepers. An irregular carer – according to Uil estimates – earns between the 500 and the 750 euros every 30 days, accommodation included in the employer’s home.
Recruitment occurs mostly through unofficial word of mouth. Some Italians also work in the domestic sector, “but it costs more than a foreigner”. Finally, let’s go back to Natalia. «My daughter – she adds – is only 24 years old. By sending 5 thousand euros I made sure that she was transferred to the army offices. She used to fight at the front. This way I feel more relaxed, it’s worth it.”
A similar story is that of Tania, also on welfare in a Neapolitan home: “I send the money to my brother – she sighs – so I make sure he doesn’t leave the house, given that there is war.” However, different events also occur, in which pseudo-disputes arise with employers. A., for example, is a young Peruvian caregiver. “The lady I worked for didn’t want to give me severance pay,” she says. “I therefore told her I would go to the police.”
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Read the full article at
The morning
