“I was born and raised in Italy, but I’m still seen as an outsider because of my physical appearance,” says Giorgia Gao. “What sense does it make for me to become Italian?”
The 18-year-old Chinese woman is a student in Prato, the Italian city with the highest percentage of Chinese residents among the local population (14,3%).
The Tuscan city's Chinese inhabitants feel disconnected from the local community, despite roots stretching back more than 40 years, due to unresolved tensions causing social unrest.
Now, however, says sociologist Fabio Bracci, “they are trying to live through a period of normalization” because friction “seems to have diminished” thanks to less exploitation of the public debate for propaganda purposes by Italy's conservative right.
But few among the young generations of Italian-born Chinese foreigners seek to change their nationality.
A bill, Jus Scholae, aims to facilitate by granting citizenship rights to the children of immigrants who, for at least five years, attended a school that is part of Italy's national education system. This would apply to those born in the country or those who settled in the country before the age of 12 and could benefit 877 thousand students or around 10% of the entire school population.
However, although it was approved by a parliamentary committee earlier this year, it has not yet been presented to the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies and with the recent arrival to power of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, citizenship law reform is no longer a political priority.
'Maybe in the future'
Gao said another argument against China's claim Italian citizenship is that “Chinese nationality gives more administrative advantages”.
Classmate Angela Ye, another Chinese high school student also born in Italy, is willing to consider changing nationality.
“Maybe in the future,” the 18-year-old told Euronews. “But I would first need to change my perception of my surroundings, because nowadays my mother culture that I live with at home is still stronger than my daily connection with the local territory”.
According to Marco Wong, member of the Prato City Council, the root problem partly stems from the fact that China does not recognize dual nationality, thus creating a hostile environment of “betrayal of one's values”, if a Chinese person approaches the Italian bureaucracy. .
“The first generations have a sentimental connection with China”, explained Wong, “but the country’s traditions were transmitted viscerally to the second generations, who decided to remain anchored in Chinese citizenship, despite the strong ties with the Italian territory”.
Multicultural events organized by associations that aim to promote integration and eradicate racial discrimination, such as Associna, thus become crucial opportunities to promote connections.
“Osmosis between the two communities to silence stereotypes is possible if it starts from the bottom,” says Zhiyuan Liu, treasurer of the association, “because Ius Scholae alone cannot eliminate the effects of years of failed multiculturalism.”
Marco Baccani, cultural mediator at the local school, highlighted another peculiar phenomenon: “The double uprooting” of second Chinese generations born in Italy.
During their primary school years, their parents usually send them to their grandparents' house in China for some studies, considered necessary for them to learn Chinese culture. They eventually reunite with their parents for high school, but then remember little of the Italian language.
The biggest challenges for schools and the local community, Baccani said, are eliminating “the skills disparity created by this 'double migration'” and “the trauma of this psychological discomfort, a burden that leads to the stigmatization of the Chinese community.”
In this scenario, Chinese citizens do not feel compelled to assimilate Italian culture, while the Italian community feels empowered to exclude new generations of Chinese.
Language barrier
In this complicated context, the Italian educational system is not supportive.
Foreign citizens must have a A2 level certificate in Italian to obtain a residence permit in Italy, but the Ministry of Education's guidelines for foreign students with Italian as a second language do not specify the required language level. They simply state “about 8 to 10 hours a week for 3 to 4 months.”
This makes it difficult for teachers in Prato schools to facilitate the transition with a large number of students per class and a variety of language levels.
According to Stefania Cara, an Italian teacher for foreign students at the Gramsci-Keynes Institute, “without the level of Italian B1, it is impossible to follow classes.”
The professor added that in Prato Chinese students represent more than 60% of the total number of foreign students, with that province having the highest proportion of foreign students in the country among all those enrolled (28%).
Between 2017 and 2020, the Prato Territory School Board registered a total of 1.988 foreign students enrolled, an average of 497 per year. These students must be distributed among classes, with a government rule dictating that the share of non-Italian citizens must not exceed 30% per class.
This is often ignored in Prato schools. According to statistics, more than 50% of students in eight primary schools in Prato were foreigners in 2018.
According to the Prato Culture advisor, Simone Mangani, other citizenship services – such as access to public health – are not equally available to the Chinese community.
“If we were in a legislative regime of Ius Soli [birthright citizenship] or at least Ius Scholae,” he said, “individuals could be free to embrace a concept of citizenship, free from current political manipulation.”
Baccani, the school's cultural mediator, is of the same opinion. “It is necessary to make Italians learn Chinese and vice versa, in a process of perceiving each other’s needs for a valid process of cultural integration and adoption.”
Director Pollini also has no doubt that Ius Scholae would be useful: “I would like schools to always have a leadership role to be the true driving force of the country.”
FOLLOW-US
