Antonio Tajani, the foreign minister, expressed his desire for more African students to study in Italy on Thursday. His comments could intensify a coalition dispute over citizenship and immigration laws.
The government has been encouraged to consider awarding citizenship to foreign kids who have finished the majority of their education in Italy by Tajani’s center-right Forza Italia party.
The two hard-right coalition parties, Matteo Salvini’s League and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, have opposed the proposal.
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 talking about the Mattei Plan, an Italian development program for African nations named for the late founder of Italy’s state-run energy giant, Eni. Tajani compared the initiative to the Marshall Plan of today, in which the US helped rebuild European economies after World War II.
Compared to other sizable EU countries, far fewer foreign students attend universities in Italy. Italy issued about 25,000 study permits in 2022, according to data from the national statistics institute ISTAT, compared to about 105,000 issued by France and roughly 70,000 by Germany.
ISTAT identified two likely causes of the lack of international students: the comparatively low usage of Italian as an international language and the challenges associated with seeking employment in Italy.
