According to the Italian Foreign Minister, the country needs more African students.

🇮🇹🇪🇺Tajani’s center-right party, Forza Italia, urged the government to consider granting citizenship to foreign minors who have completed most of their studies in Italy.‼️

The proposal was opposed by the two hard-right coalition parties, Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and Matteo Salvini’s League.

“I believe that the number of African students studying in Italy should be increased,” Tajani said at a Catholic business and political conference in Rimini, on the Adriatic coast.

He discussed an Italian development initiative for African countries, known as the Mattei Plan, named after the late founder of the Italian state-controlled Eni energy company.

Tajani likened the project to a modern Marshall Plan, in which the United States supported European economies after World War II.

Fewer foreign students study in Italy than in other major countries in the European Union.

According to data from the Italian National Institute of Statistics, ISTAT, the country issued approximately 25,000 study permits in 2022, while France issued nearly 105,000 and Germany issued around 70,000 study permits.

ISTAT cited likely reasons for the lack of foreign students in Italy including the relatively limited international use of the Italian language and difficulties in finding work in Italy.