Italy: Immigration rules trump education

Italy: Immigration rules trump education


Foreigners without permission to live in Italy must be expelled from the country, even if they have young children at school from whom they will be separated, the supreme court said on Thursday.


Italy's highest appeals tribunal, the Court of Cassation, expressly overturned its own previous rulings that indicated the welfare of children was paramount in such cases. Rejecting an appeal by an Albanian national, whose pregnant wife is expecting their third child, the court said the man's situation was not sufficiently "exceptional" to prevent his expulsion under Italian immigration law. The Albanian father had argued that the enforced separation from his children would be an "emotional trauma" that would hamper their psychological development and their educational performance.


But the court ruled that authorities are only able to overlook illegal residency for a limited period of time and "only when there are serious concerns linked to the psychological and physical development of a minor arising from an emergency situation". It said that the impact of a separation on a long-term, ongoing process in a child's life, such as its education, could not be characterized as an "emergency".


"The fact that children are doing well at school and have formed stable friendships is neither exceptional nor temporary," the court said. In the judges' view, any finding suggesting a child's education amounted to an "exceptional circumstance" would "give foreign families clearance to exploit childhood". The Albanian man's family are all legally resident in Italy and his wife is shortly expected to receive Italian citizenship.


The ruling appears to reverse at least two previous decisions by the same court, one of which from January.


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Source: ANSA (English)