Italy needs more African students, foreign minister says

On Thursday, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani expressed his desire for more African students to study in Italy, a stance that could heighten tensions within the coalition over immigration and citizenship issues.

Tajani’s centre-right Forza Italia party has called on the government to consider granting citizenship to foreign minors who have completed the majority of their education in Italy.

However, this proposal has faced resistance from the two far-right coalition partners, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and Matteo Salvini’s League.

“I think the numbers of African students studying in Italy should be increased”, Tajani said at a Catholic business and politics conference in Rimini, on the Adriatic coast.

He was speaking about Italy’s development initiative for African nations, called the Mattei Plan, named after the late founder of the state-controlled energy giant Eni.

Tajani compared the project to a modern-day Marshall Plan, referencing the U.S. effort to rebuild European economies after World War II.

Far fewer international students choose Italy compared to other major European Union countries.

According to data from Italy’s National Statistics Institute, ISTAT, the country issued around 25,000 study permits in 2022, while France issued nearly 105,000 and Germany about 70,000.

ISTAT pointed to the limited global reach of the Italian language and the challenges of securing employment in Italy as likely reasons for the lower number of foreign students.