Italy’s school veil ban exposes Europe’s assimilation fight as expert warns US could be next

In what it called a "Schools Decree," the Italian government announced last month that no student may cover their face in class no classroom may exceed 30% foreign-born pupils and parents who skip mandatory Italian lessons could face fines of up to $1,120.

The decree, which takes effect next summer, is framed as a push for "integration," but it raises the question of whether a Western democracy can force assimilation, or is it already too late? Nile Gardiner, director of The Heritage Foundation's Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom said that it is "The single biggest issue of our time in Europe: Mass migration and Islamification." And had an ominous warning, "What you’re seeing in London and other European cities can easily happen in the U.S… These cultural shifts will all come to America, unless American leaders are willing to fight back." Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni defended the decree on X , calling the new rules "Tools of common sense that do not divide, but truly help to integrate, avoiding ghetto classes and giving all students the same opportunities.

This is the direction we want to continue to follow: a school that integrates without giving up on rules, that supports those who have more difficulties and that puts everyone in a position to start from the same point." PORTUGAL ENACTS 'BURQA LAW' LARGELY PROHIBITING FACE COVERINGS IN PUBLIC Experts say the decree’s principles are not extreme.

"Learning the national language and participating in your child’s education are reasonable expectations," said Simone Rodan‑Benzaquen, Senior Envoy to Europe at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

"Requiring students to keep their faces visible in an environment built around communication and interpersonal contact is also entirely reasonable." The question, she told Fox News Digital, is whether such measures actually improve integration or simply target the most visible symptoms while ignoring the deeper forces that discourage participation in wider society.

Italy is not alone.

Governments across Europe of every political stripe are tightening integration rules .

They range from the "ghetto laws" of Denmark’s center-left government, to France restricting religious symbols in schools, to Germany requiring language and civic courses, to the Netherlands testing newcomers before they even arrive.

Swedish Political scientist Daniel Schatz says, "The real divide is increasingly not between left and right, but between those who believe a state may set firm conditions for membership in a national community, and those who fear those conditions can become discriminatory or exclusionary.

It is about whether integration is a voluntary offer or a civic obligation.