Shutting integration ministry a mistake

(ANSA) - Brussels, July 28 - Italian MEP Cecile Kyenge told ANSA on Thursday that scrapping the integration ministry was a mistake. "Italy must adopt a national integration plan (to prevent radicalization and combat Islamist terrorism)," said Kyenge, who was integration minister during the previous Enrico Letta administration. "Italy should reinstate the ministry...shutting it down was a mistake". As well, Italy should speedily "complete the citizenship law, which is one of the most powerful tools for inclusion" of second- and third-generation immigrants, Kyenge said.
    Congo-born Kyenge, Italy's first black cabinet minister, earned a place among American magazine Foreign Policy's list of 'Leading Global Thinkers of 2013' for her work to "fight persistent xenophobia in Europe".
    An ophthalmologist by profession, Kyenge was appointed integration minister under the left-right government of Enrico Letta in April 2013, just two months after being elected to Italy's Lower House as an MP for the center-left Democratic Party (PD).
    Her nomination was met by racist insults from far-right groups and the anti-immigrant Northern League, with ex-minister Roberto Calderoli likened her to an orangutan.