Among the social effects of the growth of the immigrant population, what
appears to be the most interesting and full of cultural and political consequences
is represented by the phenomenon of multilingualism. As a result of
foreign immigration, countries – such as Italy – have become countries where
a variety of languages are spoken. The mastery of the language of the country
of reception, however, is essential for the full integration of immigrants in different contexts of society, promoting their cultural, social and economic
integration and becoming more and more often a necessary requirement for
the acquisition of citizenship. In this paper we intend to identify the actual
or self-perceived level of knowledge of the Italian language and the main
characteristics that language learning assumes in the immigrant population
present in Italy. Finally, a special focus will be dedicated to the issue of learning
Italian by immigrant students or students of immigrant origin. To analyse
the phenomenon of multilingualism among people of foreign origin regularly
resident in Italy and their perception of the degree of learning of Italian,
we referred to the survey Condizione e integrazione sociale dei cittadini
stranieri, carried out by istat in 2011-12. In particular, we considered people
born abroad and in Italy, still foreign or naturalized, at least 6 years old at the
time of the survey. Finally, with the information available thanks to the invalsi
evidence, the actual level of knowledge of the Italian language on the part of
immigrant students or students of immigrant origin was verified
