Why Italy Needs an Immigration Police Force and a Ministry of Integration and ReImmigration

For many Americans, debates about immigration usually focus on border security, deportations, asylum procedures, and the challenge of balancing national sovereignty with humanitarian obligations. Italy faces many of the same questions. However, Italy’s situation is also shaped by a unique geographical reality: it is one of the main gateways into Europe for migrants arriving from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

As a result, Italy has spent decades discussing immigration primarily through the lenses of emergency management, border control, and legal status. Yet a recent decision issued by the Court of Trieste in June 2026 highlights a different problem—one that goes beyond border security and raises a fundamental question about how a modern state should manage integration.

The case involved a foreign national who had lived in Italy since 2001. Before deciding whether his detention in a repatriation center should be upheld, the court examined a wide range of factors. These included his long-term presence in Italy, his previous legal status, his employment history, his family ties, his housing situation, and his social connections within Italian society.

What is striking is not merely the outcome of the case. What is striking is that a judge had to perform a detailed assessment of integration in order to reach a decision.

This raises an obvious question: why should this type of evaluation occur only at the final stage of a legal dispute?

In a well-organized system, the state should already know whether a person has integrated into society long before a court becomes involved. It should know whether that person works, speaks the national language, respects the law, participates in community life, and has established stable social and family ties.

Today, Italy has no institution specifically responsible for measuring integration.

Various public bodies collect pieces of information. Police authorities manage residence permits. Municipalities maintain residency records. Schools monitor educational participation. Social services track vulnerable situations. Tax and social security agencies collect employment data.

However, no institution is responsible for bringing all these elements together into a coherent assessment of integration.

This institutional gap has significant consequences.

Without objective measures of integration, immigration policy tends to swing between two extremes. On one side are those who advocate unconditional inclusion. On the other are those who focus exclusively on enforcement and deportation.

Neither approach provides a sustainable solution.

A functioning immigration system must be capable of distinguishing between individuals who have genuinely integrated into the host society and those who have not.

This is why I have long argued for a new framework that can be summarized in a simple formula: Integration or ReImmigration.

Under this approach, integration is not merely a right. It is also a responsibility. Individuals who learn the language, work, respect the law, and participate in the life of the national community should be encouraged to build their future in Italy. Those who systematically reject integration should eventually return to their countries of origin.

However, such a model requires institutions capable of implementing it.

The first necessary institution would be an Immigration Police Force.

This would not simply be another law enforcement agency. Its mission would be to manage the entire migration process, from entry into the country to eventual permanent settlement or return. It would develop specialized expertise in immigration law, identity verification, integration monitoring, repatriation procedures, and international cooperation.

Most importantly, it would relieve ordinary police structures of responsibilities that increasingly require highly specialized knowledge.

The second necessary institution would be a Ministry of Integration and ReImmigration.

Its role would be strategic rather than operational. It would establish national integration standards, coordinate language and civic education programs, monitor outcomes, collect and analyze data, and oversee long-term immigration policy.

At the same time, it would develop structured and lawful return policies for individuals who fail to meet integration requirements.

For an American audience, an analogy may be useful.

The United States has developed specialized federal agencies to manage different aspects of immigration, border security, customs enforcement, and citizenship. Italy, by contrast, still relies on a fragmented system in which responsibilities are dispersed among multiple ministries, police departments, local authorities, and administrative offices.

The result is a system that often reacts to immigration rather than governing it.

The lesson of the Trieste case is therefore broader than a single court decision. It demonstrates that the real challenge is not what happens inside a repatriation center. The real challenge is what happens during the years that precede it.

A country that wishes to govern immigration effectively must be able to measure integration, identify failure early, and apply consistent standards. Without institutions specifically designed for these tasks, immigration policy risks becoming a permanent cycle of emergencies.

For Italy, the creation of an Immigration Police Force and a Ministry of Integration and ReImmigration would represent a shift from reactive management to strategic governance.

In the long run, that may prove to be the most important immigration reform of all.

Attorney Fabio Loscerbo
Lobbyist registered in the European Union Transparency Register
ID 280782895721-36
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7030-0428

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