A poll worker at a polling station shows the yellow ballot paper corresponding to referendum number 5 on citizenship in Rome, Italy. Photo / Getty Images
Long after seeing millions of Italians emigrate as they fled poverty and war, Italy has now become a country to which millions of people have migrated.
Its schools and neighbourhoods fill with Africans, Asians, Latin Americans, and Eastern Europeans.
Yet many here say the law has not kept up with this dramatic demographic and social change, still making it too hard for immigrants to become Italian.
Yesterday and today, Italians were being called to vote in a referendum to decide whether to reduce the legally required residency in the country to five years, from 10 years now, in order to be able to apply for citizenship.
A change in the law would allow hundreds of thousands of foreigners to apply for citizenship, and would be a blow to conservative Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who opposes loosening the citizenship law.
But for the referendum to pass, a majority of Italian voters must turn out, with most of them voting “yes”. Many observers are sceptical that will happen in a country where turnout is low.
Whether it passes or not, the referendum has already succeeded in raising important questions about who can be a citizen at a time when migration has set off debate in the United States and Europe.
Activists and analysts alike say the vote is an important turning point for a country that is facing steep demographic decline, and it will reveal whether Italians are willing to redefine the boundaries of their national belonging to include more immigrants and their children.
“It’s a pivotal moment for how Italy sees itself and how it wants to build its future,” said Fioralba Duma, an Albanian activist who has spent most of her life in Italy but does not have citizenship.
When Italy was a country that sent emigrés abroad, generous bloodline citizenship rules allowed people of Italian descent, even if remote, to obtain citizenship, helping maintain a link with the diaspora. (The Government recently narrowed that eligibility.)
On the other hand, Italy has made it hard for immigrants to obtain citizenship.
Immigrants from countries outside the European Union with sufficient income and no criminal record can apply for citizenship only after 10 years of uninterrupted residency in Italy.
That is longer than other European countries such as France or Germany, where under some conditions immigrants can apply for citizenship after five years.
In Italy, the children of lawful immigrants can apply only once they have turned 18 and if they have continuously lived in the country since birth.
Supporters of the tight rules say Italy already grants large numbers of new citizenships, but opponents say hundreds of thousands of people reside in Italian territory without being citizens.
“They pay taxes, they abide by the laws, but they are not politically included,” said Maarten Vink, a director of the Global Citizenship Observatory. “In a democracy,” he added, “that’s not a good principle.”
The change proposed by the referendum – to reduce the required residency time to five years in order to apply – would allow nearly 1.5 million foreigners to obtain citizenship, according to an estimate by Idos, an Italian research centre.
That would include nearly 300,000 children, who would obtain citizenship if their parents do.
Among those affected is Meriem Khaldoun, a Moroccan architect in the northern Italian city of Genoa.
Khaldoun has lived in Italy her whole adult life. Because she formally registered her residency only five years ago, she must wait five more years to apply for Italian citizenship.
In the meantime, she is working with the city’s authorities on an urban regeneration project.
Progressive parties have largely supported the referendum, but the right has opposed it.
The referendum is “dangerous” and would extend access to citizenship “indiscriminately”, Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy’s far-right League Party and Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister, said last month.
It won’t be clear whether enough voters cast ballots until polls close this morning NZT.
In the 1970s and 1980s, voters flocked to the polls for referendums to uphold the legalisation of divorce and abortion. But in Italy’s last referendum, held in 2022, which focused on judicial questions, only 20% of eligible voters turned out.
“The citizens have stopped voting,” said Michele Ainis, a constitutional expert at Roma Tre university, making it much harder for referendums to pass.
This referendum also includes four additional questions on Italian labour law.
Supporters of the referendum accused Italy’s state broadcaster, Rai, of largely avoiding debates or reports about the referendum, though Rai said that it covered the referendum much more than the one in 2022.
Politicians opposed to changing the citizenship rules have said they won’t vote. Meloni said she would go to the polls but abstain from voting.
Many of the referendum’s proponents, who are immigrants or have an immigrant background, also will not cast ballots – because as non-citizens, they do not have the right to vote.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Emma Bubola
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