Saman has lived in Italy with his family for 16 years. His father, Hafiz Mohammad Anvar, 45, arrived here from Pakistan before 2000 and shortly afterwards he started working in the factory he is still dependent on today, in Correggio, where he lives together with his wife and their four children in a home owned. But his request for citizenship was rejected because “from the information activity carried out, elements have emerged that do not allow us to exclude possible dangers to the security of the Republic”. A particular case, reported by the law firm that follows the practice of Saman and his family, which is preparing the appeal to the Lazio TAR. According to the lawyers, the rejection of the request is linked to the fact that over the years Hafiz Mohammad Anvar was the imam of the Islamic cultural center in the area. Could it be enough to deny citizenship to an entire family (even the man’s wife’s request was rejected)?
This is what Saman asks himself in the letter he wrote and sent to the Ministry of the Interior. «I have been studying in Italy since I was three. This year I finished the fourth scientific high school, next year I will do the fifth high school, then I intend to attend the university. I live here, I have spent my whole life here, as have my parents, my father was in Italy before 2000, and we have been here for 16 years. It is not a few 16 years. My two youngest sisters were born here, we now feel Italian, but we cannot have citizenship, we cannot be considered Italian, next year I will turn 18 and I will not even be able to vote and say that I am part of Italy, country where I live, where I will surely spend my whole life. I can’t even write Urdu, which is the language spoken in my native country, Pakistan, often when I go on holiday there they ask me if I prefer Italy or Pakistan, and I immediately, without hesitation, reply that I feel decidedly more Italian ». A condition experienced by many boys and girls in Italy, daughters and sons of immigrants, second generation young people. I am a million.
The same people who have been protesting in the streets for years to ask for the citizenship law to be updated and who in these hours are asking for the bill on Ius Scholae become reality. The provision presented by the president of the Constitutional Affairs Commission, the M5s deputy Giuseppe Brescia, would give the possibility to those born in Italy of foreign parents, regular residents, or to those who arrive within and no later than 12 years of age, to be able to acquire citizenship after having attended a five-year school cycle. Or at the request of the parents, or of the minor himself, within two years from the age of 18. “I hope you hear my request, one day, not far away, I would like to be able to say to my schoolmates, my friends, my future colleagues:” I am Italian “. Because this decision of yours could also compromise my future and that of my sisters, because we will certainly enter the world of work, and not having citizenship could prove to be an obstacle “.
Source: Vanity Fair
