During the month of September 2024, 16 young Ghanaians employees of CRS Impianti e Costruzioni S.p.A from the Accra branch have arrived in Gorle (Bergamo), with the main objective of spending a whole working year at the Italian headquarters, in order to gain knowledge and enter the Italian working environment. The company designs, implements and maintains hydraulic, electrical, mechanical systems and construction works in the industrial, healthcare, civil and tertiary sectors.
This complicated operation was made possible by the collaboration of CRS and E4Impact, that supported the employees in the bureaucratic procedures, that resulted in the issuing of visas and of the paperwork by Italian and Ghanaian institutions in collaboration with Accra’s Italian Embassy. This initiative is part of the E4Impact strategy to go towards the promotion of a dignified labor migration.
CRS Impianti e Costruzioni willingness to draw on resources coming from one of its foreign offices arises from the need to make up for the lack of staff, a problem which affects many production sites in Italy. In collaboration with the Foundation, CRS initiated the procedure to welcome the group of Ghanaian professionals, who before coming to Italy to join the current 400 employees at the Gorle branch, have had the opportunity to participate to a training course that would provide them useful tools for the journey, including a course to learn the basics of Italian language.
The collaboration for a respectful labor migration was born from the encounter of Letizia Moratti, the president of E4Impact Foundation, and Stefano Civettini, entrepreneur from Bergamo and CEO of CRS, that took place two years ago and that led to the achievement of this first and special goal.
“In the past we had brought some engineers from Ghana in the company, one at a time, thanks to their degree it was possibile. However, this time, the challenge was much more ambitious: to give an opportunity in Italy to roughly twenty workers without a specific qualification, but plumbers, electricians and masons who for years specialized at our Ghanaian branch”, said Stefano Civettini, CEO of CRS Impianti e Costruzioni Spa. “It seemed an impossible goal to reach, due to bureaucratic problems, in front of which the willingness to leave the project could take over – continues Civettini – but we stayed strong because we had our employees to think about, who were forcibly inactive in Accra because of the momentary economic problems of Ghana, with the consequential impossibility of continuing the work acquired in the hospital field, and on the other hand, we had many work orders in Italy and the impossibility of finding personnel. We believed in it, we persevered, and we got it done”.
“Within the E4Impact strategy adopted to promote a dignified labour migration, we strongly believed in the professionality of Civettini, of CRS Impianti e Costruzioni Spa and in the quality of his idea. Thanks to our experience in Africa, thanks to the skills and relationships that we have built up over the years, we were able to make people understand the importance of the project and overcome diffidence. The visas that accompany the passports of the sixteen young workers are a useful precedent for other Italian companies and a real opportunity for those willing to accept the challenge” claimed Professor Mario Molteni, CEO of E4Impact Foundation.
There are many aspects to be taken into account and practical issues to be addressed, such as the integration in the company, technical training and teaching of the Italian language, better integration, accommodation and food, and changing habits.
“I reckon that from this continent, so close to us, we will welcome workers who will hold up our companies and I’m sure that in our companies we will be able to train young entrepreneurs who will return home to bring wealth to their compatriots” continued Stefano Civettini.
The arrival in Italy of the 16 Ghanaian professionals does not only represent the first step of their one-year experience, where they will be able to take care for their professional development; but also the first step of a long-term strategy to bring awareness in Italy on the issue of dignified labour migration, which is becoming increasingly central in the public debate in our country.