Citizenship, there is the Journalism Festival for girls and boys, which in Reggio Emilia brings them the best of the international press

REGGIO EMILIA – The right of citizenship is also at the center of the fourth edition of the International Kids Festival which will be held in Reggio Emilia from 10 to 12 May. Organized by International Kidsby the Municipality of Reggio Emilia and by Palazzo Magnani Foundation, International Kids in Reggio Emilia it is the first Italian journalism festival for girls and boys, which brings the best of the international press to the little ones through a program full of events from feminism to war, from sustainability to technology.

The meeting at Teatro Cavallerizza. The meeting, organized in collaboration with Save the Childrenis Sunday 12 May at 11.30, at the Cavallerizza Theater with Italiani de facto, to speak with Giusy D’Alconzo, responsible for institutional relations and advocacy of the Organization which for over 100 years has been fighting to save children at risk and guarantee a future for them, and Benedicta Djumpah, activist for citizenship rights.

Cultural pluralism in Italian schools. The appointment will be an opportunity to present “The World in a classroom. An investigation into cultural pluralism in Italian schools” edited by Save the Children which provides a snapshot of the situation that over 800 thousand students experience on a daily basis background migration in our school system, 1 in 10 of those enrolled in the country’s schools – to understand the relationship between education and citizenship and, in particular, how the educational and scholastic paths of minors of foreign origin can be positively influenced by the recognition of the status of citizen or Italian citizen. By “minors with a migratory background” we mean minors born in Italy with at least one parent who entered Italy as a migrant and minors who arrived in Italy having been born and previously lived in another country.

The analysis concerns 6,059 students. The analysis, which involved 6,059 male and female students, between 10 and 17 years old, from primary and secondary schools of first and second level in five cities (Catania, Milan, Naples, Rome and Turin) shows that, if 56, 2% of students with Italian parents feel “always or almost always” welcomed and an integral part of the school community, the percentage drops among students with a migratory background, with a clear difference among those who have obtained Italian citizenship (47.5%) and those who do not have it (40%), highlighting how citizenship also plays a role in the processes of building a sense of belonging to the school and the community. For example, among minors with a migrant background who stopped attending school for prolonged periods, 8.3% indicated among the main reasons the fact that there were no places available at school, a percentage that drops to 1. 5% for Italian students in the same situation.

Citizenship influences education. Italian citizenship therefore seems to positively influence the highest level of education that students expect to achieve. 45.5% of Italian students (43.2% for those with a migratory background) interviewed believe they can obtain a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree or a doctorate, a figure that drops to 35.7% for students with a migratory background without citizenship. These results show how minors with a migrant background, if citizens of the host country, tend to develop expectations and aspirations equivalent to those of their peers born in Italy.

Children “in fact” but not in law. “In our country there are girls, boys and teenagers who are “Italian” in fact but not in law, even if they were born or arrived in Italy as very young and have always lived here. This happens due to a thirty-year-old law, which allows them to obtain citizenship only when they become adults and after a complex bureaucratic process. A reform is urgent, because not having citizenship means, even for a minor, encountering obstacles in his daily life and seeing his full participation in society compromised. Precisely to ask the institutions to recognize citizenship for boys and girls born or arrived as children in Italy, Save the Children launched a petition, which has already collected over 100 thousand signatures.

The right to belong to the national community. Only in this way will it be possible to recognize their full belonging to the national community, an opportunity that our country cannot miss”, commented Giusy D’Alconzo. “There is also a need for a renewed commitment to the educational paths of students with a migrant background which recognizes the value of cultural pluralism and at the same time is part of a plan to combat all serious educational inequalities, be they territorial, economic or gender, which today jeopardize the future of children”.