In the words of ANCI's head of migration policies for the Emilia-Romagna region, Luca Rizzo Nervo, "there is this idea that it must necessarily be difficult, almost a natural selection through bureaucratic means, dividing those who make it through from those who do not."

Trying to lighten the bureaucratic load, and streamline the process, is the reason behind the request made by members of ANCI and the Administrators Network with a Migration Background (RAMI), which was created to foster "collaboration and at the same support the representativeness of people with a migration background."

The request was made on November 12, during the beginning of the Italian national municipalities association (ANCI) assembly in Bologna in the form of a letter delivered to President Mattarella, who made opening remarks at the assembly, and ANCI chairman, Gaetano Manfredi.

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Requests to head of state

The signatories, which included Bologna city councillors Siid Negash and Detjon Begaj, noted that "every Italian municipality hosts foreign nationals. As of January 1, 2024, they totalled about 5.308 million: nine percent of the population."

For many of them, however, "their first contact with [government] institutions is negative", with long waits required for the renewal of stay permits.

"Nine months," they noted in the letter to the president, "simply to get an appointment at the police station."

Among the requests is that a "memorandum of understanding be signed with police headquarters to enable the transmission of the stay permit renewals to the registry office directly from the relevant offices."

In addition, the letter stated, "a nation-wide trial at the municipal offices and local police for stay permit case management would lighten the burden on the police headquarters."

The letter also recommended that post offices equipped for the purpose also be able to issue and renew "stable stay permits -- such as ones for long-term stays", and to "strongly ask the government to implement what the law has for many years already provided for: the sharing of immigration and asylum archives on the national data platform."

Rizzo Nervo noted that this had already been foreseen by Italian law "since 2005".

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'Foreigners are energy for our economy'

"In Italy, only 20 municipalities do not host even a single foreign citizen. This gives you the idea of a country that continues to change and that must make reception and integration a point of strength and not of friction," said ANCI chairman Gaetano Manfredi while speaking at the national assembly in Bologna.

"For our economy, those who come to Italy provide an indispensable energy. But integration is an issue that affects also those who, born in Italy and despite speaking our language and attending our schools, are not yet officially Italian," he continued.

Manfredi concluded by noting that "defending the idea of a republic based on inalienable rights means ensuring that services and opportunities know no barriers of origin or condition."

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