Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni Pushes School Cap on Foreign Students and Burqa, Niqab Ban

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Sept. 20 that her government plans to introduce legislation limiting the number of foreign students in Italian classrooms and prohibiting face-covering garments, including burqas and niqabs, in schools.

The conservative prime minister said the measures are intended to promote integration, protect Italy’s cultural identity and prevent Italian children from feeling marginalized in their own classrooms.

“There’s no way that in an Italian classroom, the ones who feel marginalized are Italian children because they have become a minority,” Meloni said in Rome while addressing Gioventù Nazionale, the youth wing of her conservative Brothers of Italy party, according to reports.

The proposal would set limits on non-Italian students in individual classrooms, with the stated goal of avoiding large concentrations of foreign pupils in particular districts.

Although Meloni did not identify a specific limit, she said the plan would require parents of foreign students who have difficulty integrating to attend Italian-language classes.

“For us, anyone who comes to Italy and wants to build their future here must learn our language, understand our culture, and respect our rules,” Meloni said, The Associated Press reported.

“It is the only serious way to welcome them.”

According to figures from Italy’s Education Ministry cited by the ISMU ETS Foundation, students without Italian citizenship represent about 11.6% of school enrollment across the country.

Italian law also does not automatically grant citizenship at birth to children born to foreign parents. Those children must wait until they turn 18 to apply.

Meloni said classrooms with high numbers of students who do not speak Italian fluently can disrupt the learning process for both those pupils and their classmates.

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“If in a classroom there is only one child who doesn’t understand Italian, it is possible that that child will manage, with the help of his peers and teachers, to learn the language and integrate fast,” she said.

“But if these children are many, or even the majority, that’s not integration anymore, that’s abandonment.”

The package would also address religious clothing by banning burqas and niqabs in educational institutions. Other Islamic attire, including the hijab, would remain permitted.

In a series of posts on X on Monday, the Brothers of Italy party reinforced the prime minister’s message:

“Those who choose to build their future in Italy must learn our language, know our culture, and respect our rules.

“School is attended with one’s face uncovered. No tradition can impose on a young woman the obligation to hide herself.”

A subsequent post added: “Limit on the number of foreign students in classrooms, obligation for parents of pupils with serious integration difficulties to learn Italian, and ban on burqas and niqabs in educational institutions.

“Integration comes through knowledge of our language, respect for our rules, and protection of our cultural identity.”

France, Belgium and several other European countries have already enacted bans on face coverings in public spaces, although the laws and their enforcement vary from one country to another.

The proposed Italian legislation is expected to be considered by Italy’s Council of Ministers before being sent to Parliament for consideration.

Meloni, who has led Brothers of Italy since 2014 and served as president of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party from 2020 to 2025, has governed Italy since 2022.

Her administration recently surpassed previous records set by Silvio Berlusconi to become the longest-serving uninterrupted government in modern Italian history.