Italy to Cap Foreign Pupils and Ban Face Veils in Schools

Italy's ministers have agreed to ban the burqa and the niqab in schools and to place a ceiling on the number of foreign pupils in each class, the BBC reported on Thursday. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the package as "common-sense tools that do not divide but really help to integrate", according to the BBC. The New York Times reported the same measures under the framing that the government is moving to cap the number of foreign students in its classrooms.

The New York Times wrote that Meloni said the goal was to better integrate children who do not speak Italian, while critics accused her of trying to appease anti-immigrant sentiment. The two accounts agree on the substance of the measures and on the prime minister's stated rationale; they diverge on how the move should be read politically. The Local Italy, reporting on the same plan, asked what was really driving the clampdown, noting the announcement had been made over the preceding weekend.