By EUDO Citizenship Italy country expert Guido Tintori.

 

Italy’s nationality law (Act 91 of 1992) is particularly restrictive as regards the access to citizenship for those foreigners who cannot claim any bond with an Italian national, either by ancestry or marriage.

 

Proposals for law reform followed suit soon after the approval of the Act in 1992, immediately described as a law conceived for a country of emigration and not of immigration. In recent years, attempts to reform the law in more liberal terms have intensified, as reported in previous news items (see 9 March 2012, 23 November 2011, 23 October 2009). Debates have revolved primarily around the children of immigrants born in the country and focused mainly on the possibility to relax the requirements for conditioned ius soli. According to the current law, in fact, ius soli is applicable only after birth by declaration within one year after the 18^th birthday and depends on proving uninterrupted and legal residence in Italy since birth  (Art. 4.2), or by application and through a discretionary procedure, proving three years of legal residence in Italy.

 

In the last few years, it has been the Democratic Party (PD), but especially pro-immigrant associations and NGOs that have organised public campaigns to promote a more inclusive legislation towards the so-called “second generation immigrants” and introduced, also by means of popular initiatives, unsuccessful draft laws to the Chamber of deputies. The battle in favour of a more liberal variant of ius soli has thus maintained great visibility in the media also through cultural initiatives and has gained momentum in the public debate, to the point that a survey carried out by ISTAT – the national office of statistic – in 2012 found that 72.1% of the interviewees agreed to automatic ius soli at birth.[1]

 

During the electoral campaign preceding the last general elections of February 2013, the subject of a citizenship reform law was barely touched by the competing parties, with the notable exception of Beppe Grillo, the leader of the 5 Stars Movement, who declared his vocal dissent to any form of ius soli.

 

The results of the elections in late February were inconclusive and created a deadlock in the Italian Parliament. It took two months to form a coalition government, but in the meantime at least 18 bills to reform the 1992 Nationality Act were introduced in a few weeks after the elections. Most texts are exact replicas of those that were lingering during the previous legislative session, in many cases introduced by the same proponents.

 

Yet the formation of the government led by Mr Letta has revamped the debate on the ius soli. Two members of the administration, in fact, have been among the most proactive supporters of a more liberal citizenship law reform: Graziano Delrio, serving as minister for regional affairs for the Democratic Party, was the president of the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI), which was behind the campaign “L’Italia sono anch’io” (I am Italy too) that aimed to reform the application of ius soli and to grant immigrants the right to vote in local elections. Even more significantly, he was joined by Cécile Kyenge, naturalised Italian since 1983, minister for Integration and first black member of the cabinet in Italian history, who has been a leading figure in NGOs and the Democratic Party on matters of immigration and citizenship. The first public act of Ms Kyenge was to promote the bill she had signed in March with other members of the Democratic Party to make eligible for citizenship children born from foreign parents who have legally resided in Italy for at least five years.

 

These declarations and initiatives not only met virulent opposition from the Northern League, which does not support the government, but most importantly opened a rift with prominent figures of the other leading coalition partner, Silvio Berlusconi’s Freedom People movement (PDL), which threatened to put an end to the existence of the broad coalition government should such reform of the ius soli pass.

 

It is difficult to anticipate whether the just elected Parliament will finally reform the 1992 Nationality Law and on what terms. Despite ANCI’s recently issued report, where second generation immigrants are estimated to rise from the current 9.7% of the total population of minors in Italy to 20.7% by 2029, the broad coalition government appears too weak and unstable to succeed where previous administrations have failed. It is unlikely the PD will decide to put the current government coalition at risk in order to approve a liberal ius soli reform. Even in that case, it would need to seek support from other parties in the Senate, where the PD does not have a majority. In this respect, the Five Stars Movement leader, Beppe Grillo, has recently confirmed that his Senators will not be of help and that the Movement would rather have a national referendum on a birthright citizenship law. Most importantly, the President of the Senate, Piero Grasso, who was elected with support from the PD, stated that ius soli should be handled with care to avoid “passport babies” or “citizenship tourism” and that this reform is not a priority.

 

On the same subject, read the article La “lezione dall’estero” published in La Stampa on 8 May 2013, by EUDO-CITIZENSHIP expert Giovanna Zincone.