Khaby Lame’s success on social networks highlights the difficulties of emigrant children’s access to Italian citizenship
If you’re under 25, you probably don’t know him, but Khaby Lame is a world leader. A few minutes after midnight on Thursday, he became the most followed person on TikTok, the social network loved by the youngest and that goes beyond girls’ dance videos. At the age of 22, Lame, who started using this platform to have fun when he lost his job during the incarceration caused by the pandemic, has more than 143 million followers. To become aware of its success, we must consider the trajectory of the leaders of the other major social networks on the Internet: football player Cristiano Ronaldo on Instagram and Barack Obama, former president of the United States, on Twitter.
The primacy of Lame, the result of the videos in which he ridicules the absurd challenges that circulate on the Internet without having to say a word, has reopened the debate on the difficulties of accessing citizenship in Italy, where he has lived since he was one year old. Son of a family of Senegalese emigrants and born in Dakar. Lame has completed all his studies in Italian schools, has worked in that country and feels Italian, but his passport is from Senegal. Like so many other children of foreigners, he is still waiting for Italian nationality.
To gain entry, those born in Italy to emigrated parents must prove that they have lived continuously in its territory until they were 18 years old. It is even more difficult for those who arrived as children, as is the case with Lame, whose fame has crossed the boundaries of social networks by being invited to the Venice and Cannes film festivals.
“It is not fair that a person who has been living and growing with the Italian culture for so many years and who is still clean (without committing crimes) has no right to citizenship. And I’m not just talking about myself,” the young “influencer” lamented in an interview on “La Repubblica,” claiming that there are many other people in his situation that are not talked about because they are not famous.
In any case, the media attention that his success on TikTok has brought has made his case: this Friday, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Carlo Sibilia, announced on Twitter that the decree granting him Italian nationality, was approved on the beginning of June, so the official notification is coming soon and you will be given an appointment to take the oath.
The national pride that Lame’s number one on TikTok has exposed could have a secondary effect: speeding up the parliamentary journey of the bill known as ‘ius scholae’, which grants nationality to children over 12 and children of foreigners who have completed at least one full school cycle (five years) in Italy, without having to wait for the age of majority. The ‘ius scholae’ will be discussed next Wednesday in the Chamber of Deputies, where it is expected to be approved in July, and then it will be discussed in the Senate.
It is estimated that the measure would benefit 877,000 children and adolescents currently attending the Italian school system. “It is very difficult to say that someone who studies with our children is not Italian. With this law, Parliament is aware of the reality,” explains Giuseppe Brescia, the parliamentarian of the 5 Star Movement who wrote the text of the bill.
Although polls show that even a large proportion of voters from the right-wing parties are in favor of this initiative, League leader Matteo Salvini refuses to support it. “Citizenship has to mature until age 18,” Salvini says, as a “shortcut” like the “ius scholae” would be counterproductive to the boys themselves. However, they complain about the difficulties of waiting until the age of majority to obtain nationality. A symptomatic case was that of footballer Mario Balotelli, born in Italy to Ghanaian parents and who joined the Italian under-21 team, although he had to wait until he was 18 years old to get a passport from the European country.
Source: La Verdad
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