Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Immigration and Italian Education
What strikes me about the Migration Citizenship article is the mass amount of recent immigration and how the immigrants have integrated into society, through education and other means. The article mentions that now there are over 8 times the amount of immigrants/immigrant children in Italian schools, as compared to 1995/1996. Europeans, in particular the Italians, are seen to have a low birthrate (9.4% of births in 2003 were to foreign families but they compose 7% of the population); combining the influx of immigration and the decrease in Italian children, the percentage of immigrant children in Italian school is significantly increasing. Although the Italians seem to be doing well in this process, there are still significant educational difference between migrant children and native Italians; for example, the widening gap of decreasing success of immigrant children as they progress through school. This is a problem that the Italians are aware of, because of their consistent checks on education and in particular immigrant education, and would hopefully address in the future.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Italy should look to a country like the U.S. that has programs such as "no child left behind" to help them accommodate the immigrant students. It is very important to make sure immigrants have a good education. If they do not speak learn to speak Italian well and get a good education then they can become a burden for Italy in the future.
ReplyDelete