Italian citizenship cidadania italiana descendants
The new law on Ius Soli opens up new perspectives for foreign nationals to enter Italy and become an Italian citizen. Can a child born in Italy to foreign parents be considered Italian? But this gives rise to yet another question. Can an adult be considered Italian, even though he or she was born and raised in a foreign country where an ancestor emigrated from 1861 onwards?
Ius soli, birth in Italy and being Italian citizens
It is likely that the urgency of the reform law to become Italian citizens called Ius Culturae is the result of the progressive decline in births in Italy. The new reform law on citizenship opens the door to 800,000 new Italian citizens, born or raised in Italy by foreign parents but permanently resident in our country for 10 years and holding a long-term residence permit.
Tito Boeri, the President of INPS, the Italian Social Security Agency, as well as high prelates of the Roman Catholic Church, have repeatedly stressed the importance of having new citizens. New non-EU citizens can drive consumption and help fund the pension system in the near future. They also do jobs that Italians (but also Germans, Swedes, Austrians, etc.) are no longer able to do or don’t want to do. Compared to the past, there are not enough young Italians to meet the demand for heavy, low-salary jobs, which the Italian economy still needs. Young Italian graduates cannot and do not want to do these jobs anymore, also because, after completing their studies, they move to other countries to start high-profile careers that they cannot access in Italy for a series of social reasons, among which retirement age, the absence of structural reforms in the public administration sector, capital invested in high finance, and the scarce resources invested in research. It is a tangle of conflicting factors that generate centripetal forces that are breaking up Italian society, which has been accustomed for centuries to managing its resources in a corporative manner.
There are no good intentions behind the new policies on the reception and integration of immigrants, but only the need to meet new economic and social needs. The same pragmatism prompted Italian lawmakers, with the first organic law on citizenship, in 1912, to continue to consider the children of the first wave of migration between the end of the 19th century and early 20th century to the Americas, the United States, Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina and Uruguay, as Italians, in order to allow them to be able to come back to Italy and to bring home the economic resources earned by migrants.
Ius Sanguinis. How do you become an Italian citizen through emigrant ancestors, even though you were born and raised in a foreign country?
According to Italian Ministerial Circolare K28 and as a result of the Italian Law No. 555 of 13 June 1912, a descendant born in a foreign country of an Italian ancestor who emigrated to the country is an Italian citizen provided that the ancestor was still Italian at the time of the birth of the descendant. Recognition is granted in court (see here to find out how). As a result of the ruling of the Supreme Court of Cassation en banc (No. 4466 of 25 February 2009), Italians are also the descendants born to an Italian mother married to a foreign national, even before the Constitution came into force, on 1 January 1948, by which men and women were granted the same rights and duties. Again, recognition is granted in court.
Therefore, children born to foreign nationals in Italy, Ius Soli, and descendants of Italian emigrants abroad, Ius Sanguinis, become Italian citizens as a result of the same transformations and economic urgencies. We have prejudices against the former, but not against the latter. Who knows or remembers that Robert de Niro is also Italian citizen an Italian citizen since 2006, because of his ancestors from Molise, Giovanni Di Niro and Angelina Mercurio, who emigrated to United States in 1890? And what about Colin Firth, who applied for dual citizenship after Brexit and is a Naturalised Italian as a result of Ius Matrimoni. The English actor is married to Livia Giuggioli, an Italian producer, with whom he had 2 children. The Firth press office stated: Colin asked for dual citizenship (British and Italian) to have the same passport as his wife and children.
Glossary:
Ius Soli or right of the soil. Right to citizenship by reason of the legal fact that a person is born in the territory of a given country
Ius Sanguinis or nationality by birth: right to citizenship transmitted by legal fact of birth to a parent holding the same nationality
Citizenship by marriage with an Italian national: acquired through the spouse
Ius Culturae: citizenship acquired as a result of having lived and learned the language and values of the country, of which one applies to become a citizen
Citizenship: status or legal relationship between a citizen and the State. Citizenship as the right to full civil and political rights
Foreign national: A person who is not recognised to be a citizen of the country in which he or she is located. There are 4 categories of foreign nationals in Italy:
•Europeans or citizens of EU Member States
•Nationals of non-EU countries
•Stateless persons who have no nationality
•Refugees, i.e., people seeking international and subsidiary protection
For your application for citizenschips, asylum and the issue of a temporary or permanent residence permit, ask for the advice of the Damiani&Damiani International Law Firm for Immigrants
