Rome - Italy, traditionally one of the world's greatest exporters of people, should open its doors to immigrants to offset its dwindling labour force, the Interior Minister, Mr Enzo Bianco, said yesterday.
"All the conditions exist for us to increase the quota of immigrants," Mr Bianco told a conference on demographic trends. "Our country urgently needs a labour force and new vital energy because it is growing old quickly."
The Italian government set itself a quota of 63,000 legal immigrants for 2000 but economic expansion has meant the quota has been almost filled. Employers in Italy's northern industrial heartland have been urging the government to take in more immigrants to do the low-paid manual jobs Italians refuse to do. Mr Bianco described Italy's current immigration situation as "manageable".