“Ci sono lavori che gli italiani non vogliono fare più”. Le cause della fuga dalla ristorazione in Italia

Abstract

“There are jobs that Italians don’t want to do anymore.” This phrase has spread in the public discourse since the 1990s, coinciding with the restructuring of the labor market and the growth of immigration. For a long time, it was used in reference to sectors characterized by strenuous, dangerous, and underpaid jobs, such as agriculture, construction work and domestic labour. In recent years, this expression has been used in other sectors, such as logistics, healthcare, and hospitality. This article uses the testimonies of restaurant workers to understand whether the decision to leave the sector is motivated by a desire to improve their condition, or by unsustainable working conditions. Using Grounded Theory Method to analyze the testimonies of anonymous Reddit users published between 2022 and 2024, this article suggests that the substitution of domestic labor with migrant labor is not due to cultural change in the labor tastes of Italians. It is, on the contrary, the symbol of a deterioration in working conditions that, over the years, has become normalized and widespread, to the point of describing an emergency in several sectors of the Italian economy.