Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Thursday called for more African students to study in the country, a stance that could intensify ongoing disagreements within the coalition over immigration and citizenship rights.
Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and his center-right Forza Italia party are pushing for a policy that would grant citizenship to foreign minors who complete most of their schooling in Italy.
However, the proposal faces resistance from the two hard-right coalition partners: Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and Matteo Salvini’s League.
Speaking at a Catholic business and politics conference in Rimini on the Adriatic coast, Tajani stated, “I think the numbers of African students studying in Italy should be increased.”
He was addressing Italy’s development initiative for African nations, the Mattei Plan, named after the late founder of state-controlled energy firm Eni.
He compared the plan to a modern-day Marshall Plan, referring to the post-World War II U.S. effort to revive European economies.
Italy lags behind other major European Union countries in attracting foreign students.
In 2022, Italy issued only 25,000 study permits, significantly fewer than the 105,000 granted by France and the 70,000 by Germany, according to data from ISTAT.
The agency attributed this disparity to factors like the limited global use of the Italian language and the challenges of securing employment in the country.