The paper focuses on the EU social model and its \uabdouble\ubb, that is to say the others, those left out, the non-EU citizens who seek work in the context of processes of economic migration, or who already have a job even if not always declared. The analysis stems from the first social programmes of 1974 (the Council Resolution concerning a social action programme and the Action Programme in Favour of Migrant Workers and their families) in order to strengthen the idea behind the following reflection: the roots of the social model are binary and include within the legal discourse both EU and non-EU workers, initially associated in the processes of free movement. After a preliminary reconstruction of the EU policies on the topic (from Tampere to Europe 2020), the authors focuses on the most recent regulatory results, paying particular attention to Dir. 2011/98 concerning permits and equal treatment of workers legally resident in a member state. Moving from the example provided by the Italian situation \u2013 where the first, real phase of the impact of EU law on national law (labour law included) seems capable of significantly affecting the regulatory standards in respect of the employment of foreigners \u2013 the analysis aims at taking the discussion to a wider and comparative level
