PH Embassy Addressing Unemployment Among Filipino Youth in Italy

Rome, Italy — The Philippine embassy is working with the Italian government to address the high unemployment rate among young Filipinos in Italy.

“We have a very high youth unemployment (in Italy),” Philippine Ambassador to Italy Domingo Nolasco said in an interview.

To address this problem, the envoy said the embassy, in cooperation with Filipino organizations in Italy, is sponsoring two seminars aimed at reaching out to the young Filipinos and signing them up with the European Youth Guarantee Program that runs a database for job matching. Under the program, young Filipinos get a chance to gain either employment or internship in Italy.

As of July 2015, Italy’s Ministry of Interior has estimated a total of 171,000 Filipinos who are legally working in Italy—most are employed in the northern part of the country, mainly around the Milan area. There is also a large concentration of Filipinos in Rome.

About 80 percent of them are in the service sector, and the rest are religious persons, dependents and young people.

Nolasco further noted that Filipino youths in Italy are already detached from their roots, with many of them no longer knowing the Filipino culture and heritage.

“Many of the young Filipinos are not able to speak our language and many of them are not aware of our culture,” he said. “So whenever I have a chance to speak with the (Filipino) community or with the groups of our kababayans, I always encourage them not to forget to speak with their children in our native language.”

The embassy is putting up Centro Rizal and has organized a weekly program to teach them about Filipino culture, with the help of several Filipino organizations. (PRC/PCCO/PND)