Italy plans school veil ban and limits on foreign students per class: Here’s why

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reportedly said that Italy is preparing to ban face coverings in schools and to cap the number of foreign students per class-a move that played up her right-wing credentials at a youth event organized by her party.

Italy is among the European countries most exposed to migrant inflows because its central Mediterranean location makes migration a hot issue and a major governance challenge.

Meloni told at an annual gathering, “ A measure will soon be presented to a ​Cabinet meeting to legally establish a maximum number of foreign students per class. It also requires parents of foreign students facing serious difficulties integrating into the school system to ​learn Italian and bans burqas and niqabs in schools.”

“You must go to ⁠school ​with your face uncovered, and in Italy ​no one, in the name of a real or supposed tradition, can decide that a young ​woman must hide herself, Meloni continued.”

Under the new proposal, the integration of migrants, specifically those from Muslim-majority countries, remains a subject of intense debate in Italian politics and society as debates over religious symbols, cultural integration, citizenship rules and immigration policy remain contentious subjects.

According to Fondazione ISMU, students who are not Italian citizens account for 11.6% of those enrolled in Italian schools, approximately 12 out of every 100 students.