During the summer, discussions about citizenship reform resurfaced. The law granting Italian citizenship is Law 91 of 1992, and there have been debates about its reform since 1999, unfortunately without success.
The leader of Forza Italia, Antonio Tajani, reopened the issue, inspired in part by the Olympic victories of Italian athletes of foreign origin, such as volleyball players Paola Egonu and Myriam Sylla. However, Tajani, like others before him, ties the acquisition of citizenship to “merit”. In this legislature, several proposals to reform the citizenship law have been submitted, but none have begun their parliamentary process for discussion and approval.
Italy is indeed one of the most restrictive European countries in granting citizenship. Currently, one becomes Italian if born to parents who have Italian citizenship, if one marries an Italian citizen, or if one acquires citizenship through naturalization by living in the country for ten consecutive years of residence, after a long and complicated bureaucratic process. At present, Italian citizenship is mainly transmitted by right of blood, i.e., by birth. The Latin expression often used to define this procedure is jus sanguinis. The law was designed this way in 1992 to allow descendants of Italian emigrants abroad to retain their citizenship rights, even if they were born and live far from the country for generations.
Political sociology professor Giovanna Zincone explains in her essay “Citizen Policy Making” that “when Italy was unified in 1861, its first citizenship law privileged the principle that belonging to a society should depend on belonging to a nation, a community of people who have the same ancestors”. The first citizenship law of the newly unified country was borrowed from the Napoleonic code, as in almost all European countries.
Zincone recalls that – like all countries with a high number of emigrants – Italy has favored the transmission of citizenship “through blood” to maintain a connection with the many Italian emigrants who lived and worked abroad and contributed to the country’s development and enrichment through remittances. However, Rome has failed to approve measures extending citizenship to foreigners who have resided in Italian territory for many years and to their children born and raised in Italy, even though jus soli (citizenship rights linked to place of birth) has been discussed since the late 1990s.
For years, there have been attempts to reform the law to allow nearly a million non-Italian children attending schools to obtain citizenship and have the same rights as their Italian classmates. In many of these cases, these are people born in Italy (to foreign parents). In August, discussions resumed about a bill that had been considered by parliament years ago but stalled in 2022. The proposal was defined as jus scholae because it links the acquisition of citizenship to the completion of a cycle of studies in Italian schools. Previously, the proposal had been defined as jus culturae.
The reform text at the time linked the acquisition of citizenship to the completion of a cycle of studies. More specifically, it provided for the recognition of citizenship for minors born in Italy or who arrived before the age of twelve and had legally resided there without interruption, regularly attending at least five years of study in one or more school cycles.
In the case of attendance at primary school, successful completion of the study cycle was necessary. A similar proposal was rejected by parliament in 2017 when, after two years of discussion and approval by the Chamber in 2015, there were not enough votes in the Senate for the final approval of the law.
To bring the reform issue back into public debate, the association “Italians without citizenship”, supported by other organizations such as Arci, Libera, A buon diritto, and parties like Più Europa, launched a petition to promote a referendum on citizenship. The proposal aims to reduce the number of years of continuous legal residence required to obtain Italian citizenship from ten to five.
On the referendum page, the promoting committee explains that, for the purpose of granting citizenship, in addition to uninterrupted residence in Italy, “the other requirements already established by current legislation and jurisprudence would remain unchanged, such as: knowledge of the Italian language, possession of adequate economic resources, professional suitability, compliance with tax obligations, absence of impediments related to the security of the Republic”. In Italy, “about 2.5 million people possessing these requirements could benefit directly or indirectly (minor cohabiting children) from the proposed intervention”.
To ensure the referendum takes place in spring, it is necessary to collect 500,000 signatures by September 30. For this reason, a campaign is underway with testimonials from figures like Luigi Ciotti, Roberto Saviano, Matteo Garrone, and Zerocalcare to encourage digital signatures, which can be made via SPID or electronic ID card on the Ministry of Justice’s online platform.
To sign, it is sufficient to go to the official website, or directly to the page dedicated to the citizenship referendum. Once logged in with one’s digital identity, one simply needs to click on “Support the initiative”. At the bottom of the page, one can also see how many signatures are still needed to reach the required 500,000.
