(Photo ANSA)   The integration difficulties of foreign minors are not trivial. In adolescence, the phenomenon of exclusion can push the individual towards the criminal environment. The Immigration Office of the Rome Police Headquarters faces this problem daily in their sector dedicated exclusively to foreign minors. Moreover, the stabilization of immigrants on the National territory; being holders of a permanent job, becoming – at times –even traders and entrepreneurs, almost always involves family reunification. However, these are legitimate aspirations that pose questions which are not easily resolved, either for the adult family members or, above all, for the minors. They are questions that regard the integration processes, which many immigrant families do not see as an opportunity, but as a threat to their cultural identity, to the point where they prefer to repatriate the minors until they have finished school in their Country of origin.

The foreign minor legally reunited or born in Italy and belonging to a legally residing family nucleus

Our Country finds itself facing a new phase of immigration on the part of the foreign populations in Italy.
After a first phase of “transitory migration”, Italy has become the place of stabilization of the immigrants.
Also the typology of the migratory cycle has changed. In the first phase of the “transitory migration” the modality of immigration, being of transitory type, took place mainly with the typologies which we can define as “single”, insofar as it concerned single immigrants whose scope was that of return to the Country of origin.
At the present time the single immigrants who enter the National territory migrate with the perspective of desiring to expand their family nucleus, the probabilities that the same nuclei definitively stabilized in Italy are always on the increase.
The phenomenon of this approach to the phase of stabilized migration for the family nuclei is through the children, who are often born in Italy or arrive on the territory when they are very young.
This procedure of legal migration of the minors within a legal family nucleus or of consequent parentage of same on the Territory, assumes an important role of guiding the whole nucleus in a process of complete social integration in Italy.
The legal reunification with the children from their Country of origin, through the procedures of the law, or their birth in Italy has, undoubtedly, reformulated the social position of the immigrants towards a residential and cultural stabilization.
The foreign minor is the natural confrontation of the existential expectations of the family nucleus in the society: in fact, it is the minor who is introduced into the daily social life of the Country, devoid of any contamination from original cultural roots, except those represented by the family, but still mitigated by the context in which they are lived.
It is the minor who, through the scholastic path, the cultural contamination and the socialization with his peers, is able, in most cases, to annul the social-cultural distance of the parents with the host Country: it is as if Italy, through the aforementioned social-cultural processes, contaminates, in a positive sense, a cell of the family nucleus – the minor – in an irreversible way.
It will be the minor him/herself who will open the family nucleus towards the outside world, the national customs and traditions, up to a slow, but inexorable social and cultural integrative process.
Although generically defined “foreign minor” it would be complex to define as an immigrant, the minor who comes to Italy as an infant or who is born in Italy, because the migratory phenomenon of the Country of origin, with all the related social-cultural processes, is absent: furthermore, of these minors, some know the Country of origin very little or indirectly, others have never seen it.
However, the conditions of foreign minors with legally resident parents in Italy are various.
Minors born in Italy of parents with legal residence permits have, without doubt, a more favourable condition, insofar as they have little difficulty in learning the language and their socialization is faster and more natural. They are born on the National Territory and have no problem of uprooting from a previous reality.
Legal immigrant minors, instead, in spite of themselves or for their good fortune, according to the point of view, undergo a forced cultural transplantation from their Country of origin to the Country of destination, insofar as their fate is connected to the movements of their parents: Tahar Ben Jelloun, Moroccan writer, speaks in these cases of “an involuntary generation” which, in European Countries has notably increased during recent years.
According to the age at the time of migration, eventual problems in the psyche of the minor may or may not occur: the older the minor at the time of migration, the more difficult and/or traumatic the uprooting will be – the separation from relatives, attachments, friends and familiar places.
However, at times, these traumas can also be absent because the uprooting is compensated by the reunification with the biological parents. On the other hand, the uprooting experience can be deeply unsettling because the minor has grown in the territory of origin in a family made up of aunts, uncles, relatives, who have become the real parents, and the minor is subsequently taken by the biological parents with whom he/she cannot identify at an emotional level.
Only a real process of integration, also with the help of the local social realities or, if necessary, with the appropriate State services, can help the minor to overcome eventual difficulties in his/her acclimatization to Italy.

The unaccompanied foreign minor

Foreign minors who have entered Italy illegally and without parental care on the National Territory are defined as “unaccompanied foreign minors”.
Such minors are uprooted from the Country of origin by their own families either for purely economic reasons or to escape political-military conflict: these minors are pushed to illegal migration to Europe through hard and dangerous journeys, managed by the powerful criminal organizations which coordinate a real illegal business.
Many times, the impact of the new reality on the minor is accompanied by great psychological discomfort which, in certain cases, leads them to alienation from the new reality or to behaviour in which the sensation of feeling excluded from the territorial reality which surrounds them is very visible: this leads to depressive states and difficulty in socializing. In some cases there are more serious hypotheses, such as self-injury or aggregation with groups of fellow-nationals of a strong ethnic character and violent conduct, with the purpose of marking a difference and a cultural resistance with the other ethnic groups and virtual ascendancy over sectors of territory in conflict with other young foreigners or Italians. The misuse of this ethnic identification, often violent, leads to the opposite effect of the one desired by the minor: a ghettoized reality is formed which will underline their difference to the social fabric in which they live.
Certain studies of the sector address and examine the concept of “cultural resistance” and suggest various types of integrative solutions of the minor, and among the most interesting are the assimilation (complete adhesion to the values of the society of destination) or the dual ethnicity (adhesion to the values of the society of destination moderating them with those of the culture of origin).
The hardship of the unaccompanied minors is considerable: they reach Italy clandestinely and find refuge with fellow-nationals, sometimes with legally resident relatives, who send them out to do “undeclared” work activities in order to satisfy the economic expectations of the families of origin: the placement of these minors is often in run-down, overcrowded habitations, with unhygienic conditions.
Others of these minors become delinquent labourers or, at times, enter the prostitution circuits.
The more fortunate are traced by the Police forces on the National Territory and are placed in adequate reception centers managed by the local Administrations. From here the process which will lead them to the legalization of residence permits for minors begins, each situation verified individually by the Foreign Minors Committee and the Tutelary Judge.
Many of them are devoid of identifying documents and the collaboration with the individual diplomatic authorities in Italy would be very precious, as well as the procedures of identification of the migrant minor in the modalities provided for by the Protocol Circular N° 17272/7 – 09.07.2007 of the Secretary of the Interior.

Integration difficulties of the foreign minor

The integration procedures are not always easy: at times, exclusion can happen instead of inclusion in the social integration process during the adolescent age of the minor. This can have many explanations:
the diffidence and prejudices of a cultural type in particular social contexts of the Country;
the instrumental shortcomings, formative and disciplinary on the part of the public institutions, in general, and specifically, on the part of the schools;
the ethnic-racial conflicts between Italians and foreigners or between the same various foreign communities.
The effects of such conflicts are devastating:
- marginalization of the subjects and of the family nuclei of origin;
- creation of racist groups fueled with strong social tensions, as well as the creation of ethnic
groups of a violent matrix, dangerous also for law and order and security of the State (reference is made to the phenomenon of the so-called “baby-gangs”);
- creation of a generation settled on the National Territory alien to the social fabric of the Country.
A further problem of the integrative processes of the minor is, at times, represented by the families.
Many immigrated families do not experience this process of integration of their children as an exceptional opportunity, but as a threat to their cultural identity and, very often, prefer to repatriate the minors until they have finished school in the Country of origin. This leads to a cultural discrepancy between the settled immigrant families and the host territory.
Therefore, the schooling and the safeguard of the interests of the foreign minor, with his/her consequent integration in the national social fabric, represents one of the most advanced tools of prevention, also at the level of the security of the State.

Regulatory changes for minors, previously in foster care or protection, who have come of age

From the 8th August 2009, the amendments to existing regulations of the Immigration Unified Code have entered into force and, therefore, for minors who have come of age, coming from the Legal Institute of Protection or of Foster Care, the conditions provided for by Art. 32, c.l.1 bis, 1 ter and 1 quater of the Legislative Decree N° 286 of the 25.07.1998, mod. L N° 189/2002 and L N° 94/2009 et ult, mod., will be verified, unless during investigation new elements emerge which do not allow the issuance of the administrative title according to other legal provisions of the Immigration Unified Code
Art. 32 Immigration Unified Code:
On coming of age, to the foreigner in whose regard the provisions of Art. 32, para 1 and 2 have been applied, and accepting what is provided by para 1-bis, to the minors who have been entrusted under Art. 2 of the Law 4th May, 2983, N° 184, can be issued a residence permit for motives of study, for access to employment, paid employment, independent employment, for health needs and health care. The residence permit for access to employment prescinds from the possession of the requirements under Art. 23.
l-bis. The residence permit referred to in para. 1 can be issued for motives of study, for access to employment, paid employment, independent employment, on coming of age, unless there has been an intervening decision of the Committee for foreign minors referred to in Art. 33, to the foreign unaccompanied minors, entrusted under Art. 2. Of the Law 4th May 1983, N° 184, that is under protection, who have been admitted for a period not inferior to two years to a social and civil integration project, managed by a local administration, or private, which has national representation and is, however, entered in the registry established at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, under Art. 52 of the President of the Republic Decree, 31st August 1999, N° 394.
1-ter. The managing Body of the projects must guarantee and prove with suitable documentation, the moment the foreign minor referred to in para. 1-bis comes of age, that the interested party has been on the National territory for not less than three years, that he /she has followed the project for not less than two years, has the availability of housing, and attends study courses, or has paid employment activities in the forms and with the modalities provided for by the Italian Law, or is in possession of a work contract, even if not yet commenced.
1-quater. The number of residence permits issued under the present Article is deducted from the entry quotas defined annually in the Decrees referred to in Article 3, para 4, […].



The Immigration Office of the Rome Police Headquarters and the foreign minors

The Immigration Office of the Rome Police Headquarters has a sector dedicated to the problems of foreign minors. It operates in coordination with the local Mobile Squad, the Anti-crime Division and avails itself of the collaboration of the V Department of the City of Rome.
The coordination implemented with the Office of the Mayor of Rome, with the Municipal Police, with the Social Services, the Local Health Companies and with the Municipalities on the Territory is of great importance.

Scheme of synthesis on the condition of the minor in Italy
Brief Summary of residence permits for minors

- RESIDENCE PERMIT FOR MINOR AGE FOR UNACCOMPANIED MINORS
- RESIDENCE PERMIT FOR MINOR AGE FOR MINORS IN PROTECTION AND IN
FOSTER CARE
- RESIDENCE PERMIT FOR FAMILY
- RESIDENCE PERMIT FOR MOTIVES OF PROTECTION – SOCIAL EX. ART. 18, c.l.
- RESIDENCE PERMIT FOR MOTIVES OF PROTECTION – SOCIAL EX. ART. 18, c.6
- RESIDENCE PERMIT FOR POLITICAL ASYLUM
- RESIDENCE PERMIT FOR OTHER MOTIVES