Informal work is completely blocked, says worker. “Three months without bringing home a single euro”
In the Quarticciolo area, on the outskirts of Roma, 70% of residents earned their living through informal work – it was either that or drug trafficking.
When the confinement started, everyone lost their jobs. Most of the time they cannot count on help from the State. They line up here twice a week to receive food packages from local producers or shopping vouchers.
Despite being illegal, informal work is quite common in Italy, more than in other parts of Europe. It allows entire families to survive and plays a crucial role in the country's economic growth.
Stefano Belmonte is one of these workers. He has a wife and daughter and has not worked, in total, in the last three months: “I have some vegetables, tomatoes, spaghetti, fruit, eggs. It's enough to eat for lunch and dinner. It’s not much, but I’ll do my best to make it last for the three of us,” he told the portal Euro News.
Solidarity between people is quite common in Quarticciolo. Stefano has been helping at the local institution for a few years. It's a way to stay busy and support the community where he lives.
“It’s been three months without bringing a single euro back home. I was able to continue, because the food I needed was offered. I did a few things here and there, but there is no income. I worked a total of three days in three months. Illegal work is completely blocked. That's what I do, unfortunately, at my age I don't have the possibility of being offered a job”, says Stefano.
A boxing gym was created to keep young people off the streets – but it has not yet reopened and without it many local teenagers feel lost.
Gian Maria Fara, president of EURISPES (Institute of Political, Social and Economic Studies), believes that the parallel economy is a natural response to the malfunctioning of the country's bureaucracy, as well as high income tax rates, which represent 35% of the country's GDP.
“Thanks to undeclared income, entire families buy groceries and move around, in other words, they live a normal life. Even if we talk about illegal income, it remains part of the entire economy, in the same way that income from criminal activities also plays a role in the economic growth of the country,” he explains.
Increased social tensions could be one of the consequences of the crisis, with many Italians having no choice but to accept support from criminal organizations.
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