It is not time for the ius scholae, the idea of ​​citizenship for foreign minors has been rejected

The proposal for citizenship for minors with a migrant background who attended school in Italy and which politicians discussed so much in the summer was not approved by parliament.

• After an entire summer talking about ius scholae, parliament rejected the right to citizenship after a 10-year study cycle.
• In the past, a bill based on the ius soli, which granted citizenship to those born on Italian territory, had stalled in the Senate.
• At the moment, a referendum campaign remains active to modify the current law, based on ius sanguinis.

Nothing new regarding the right to citizenship for foreign minors.It might seem like non-news, but in reality it is given that the Italian political debate in the last month has focused a lot on ius scholae, or the possibility of obtaining Italian citizenship for minors with a migratory background born in Italy or who arrived before the age of 12 and who have completed a ten-year school cycle in Italy, also with the opening of one of the majority parties, Forza Italia.

Because there has been so much talk about ius scholae 

However, the Chamber of Deputies rejected all the amendments proposed by the opposition in Security bill, currently being examined by parliament, which aimed precisely at introducing the ius scholae.And Forza Italia, after the beautiful words of the summer, ultimately voted against the amendments, announcing that it would rather present its own bill.“The issue is too important to be addressed with an amendment to a decree that deals with something else,” he said Paolo Emilio Russo, the Forzista deputy who more than anyone had opened up to the ius scholae.

True, on the one hand:It's a shame, however, that this solution could have immediately remedied the problem of over a million minors without citizenship, and that immediately afterwards the Chamber voted against the request of another parliamentary group (the 5 Star Movement) to discuss with the procedure There is an urgent need for a bill to reform citizenship, again on the ius scholae, already presented to the Chambers.Now we will talk about it no earlier than next November.

In the beginning it was ius soli

The debate on citizenship for foreign minors is not new in Italy.Already in the past, attempts were made to introduce it jus soli, a principle that grants citizenship to those born on Italian territory:what happens for example in the United States.In 2015, the Chamber of Deputies had approved a law that provided for it temperate ius soli (which was proposed as an amendment to the Security bill, but was also rejected) and it jus culturae, but the text never passed the Senate.The proposal provided that a child born in Italy to foreign parents could obtain citizenship if at least one of the parents had legally resided in Italy for at least five years (today it is ten, but first it is the parent who has to take on Italian citizenship), or alternatively if had attended one or more school cycles for at least five years.

How citizenship works today for foreign minors

Currently, the right to citizenship for foreign minors in Italy is mainly regulated by the jus sanguinis.This means that a child born in Italy to foreign parents does not automatically obtain Italian citizenship: you can request it when you turn 18, provided that you have resided legally and continuously in Italy up to that point.The procedure requires the submission of a formal application and demonstration of continuous residence, which can be proven with various documents such as registry and school registration certificates.Rules which, very often, translate into a real obstacle course:In fact, it is not always easy to demonstrate that you have legally resided in Italy, as this is strictly linked to the status of your parents.Furthermore, in many cases it is necessary to return to one's country of origin (perhaps at war, with all the difficulties involved) to recover the necessary certificates.

According to data from Ministry of Education and Merit, There are many pupils with a migrant background who attend Italian schools every day: 914,860 students with non-Italian citizenship in the last school year, equal to 11.2 percent of the school population.Only 15.5 percent of Italian schools do not register the presence of students of foreign origin.

What a minor without citizenship can do, and what not 

Foreign minors have the right to education and healthcare, regardless of their citizenship status, but remain penalized in many other cases:for example, they cannot participate in several competitions, for example those for the police force which are also open to those who are 16 years old, or they cannot participate in school initiatives such as trips abroad, precisely because they do not have an Italian passport.For the same reason, obviously, if high-level athletes cannot represent the Italian national team (it is no coincidence that the debate is cyclically rekindled on occasions of sporting events such as the Olympics).

While waiting for parliament to wait a long time, the other path currently open for a reform of the citizenship law is through one referendum campaign promoted by numerous entities, which calls for Italy to align itself with the citizenship rules of the large European countries:after 5 years of legal residence in Italy (today there are 10), you will be able to request Italian citizenship and pass it on to your minor daughters and sons.