«Of course foreign workers could increase employment in Italy. Ardian Dushaj, sole director of the logistics giant «Ashel group» which is based in Novara in the Sant’Agabio district, agrees with the Governor of the Bank of Italy: «Working in this sector is tiring, fewer and fewer Italians choose to enter it. Without foreigners we wouldn’t go anywhere.”
Dushaj arrived in Novara more than twenty years ago, immediately rolling up his sleeves doing the most disparate jobs: delivery boy, warehouse worker, sorter, driver. In the space of two decades he managed to set up an economic empire which for four years in a row had a turnover of almost 60 million euros: a fleet of 55 vehicles transporting materials on behalf of various local companies – including Comoli Ferrari – and 980 active employees.
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«I was used to working up to 18 hours a day, breaking my back – he says -. I don’t mean to make comparisons, but today it is difficult to have a similar mentality and I certainly don’t find it in Italians, especially young ones. I see many kids who give up after a month or two because it’s too difficult, tiring or exhausting. I have noticed this attitude especially after Covid: fewer and fewer are willing to work for more than a certain number of hours a week, or to drive a truck rather than in front of the shelves of a warehouse. From my personal experience I can say that foreigners are the ones ready to put the most at stake, knowing full well that it is a humble job, involving effort and sweat.”
For almost all the contracts he holds with the Ashel group, explains Dushaj, «95 percent of the workers are not Italian. In my company I have young people who come from 38 different nationalities, capable and willing to grow in this profession.” A sensitivity towards foreigners that the president of Ashel also demonstrated at the end of April, when he became the patron of Olimpia Sant’Agabio – a football club from the most multi-ethnic neighborhood of Novara, with the aim of involving young people from that area and promoting their social integration through sport.
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«Having established the importance of foreign workers in logistics – continues Dushaj – it is right to remember that it is still difficult to find foreign workers willing to accept immediately. Partly because documents are needed in order, partly because Italian bureaucracy slows down the hiring of staff a lot.”
Two months ago, he says, «I had applied for 42 foreign workers following the normal procedures. My question was never answered and now I have six vehicles stopped”. A tiny percentage compared to the fleet he has at his disposal, he admits, but what bothers him is the underlying concept of lack of work: “As long as I can give jobs to people who need to eat to build a life here, I will take action in any way possible” .
