The referendum, which intends to reduce the residency time required for foreigners to obtain Italian citizenship, has been officially proposed by the centre-right party of Forza Italia.
According to the current law, foreigners born in Italy cannot obtain citizenship without living at least ten years in the country, Schengen.news reports.
However, the new proposal intends to make it easier for migrants to obtain citizenship, with some officials proposing that ‘anyone who has obtained ten years of compulsory education in Italy should be eligible for acquiring citizenship’.
The current legislation establishes that Italian citizenship can be granted to a foreign citizen legally resident in the territory of the Republic for at least 10 years. This question proposes to halve this term, bringing it back to 5 years, as was provided for by the legislation before 1992 and as established in several other EU States.
The referendum needs to collect 500,000 signatures to be considered for discussion in the Parliament, and so far, 95,598 or 19 per cent of the required signatures have been collected. The signatures have to be collected before September 30. This could impact the lives of thousands of Italian residents.
The Proposal Has Low Chances of Being Discussed in Parliament
Data published by the European Website on Integration revealed that in July 2022, there were 865,388 students without Italian citizenship attending school in Italy. In addition, it is revealed that the number of non-Italian students enrolled in high schools has increased by 13,000 during this period.
However, Despite the support it is receiving, the proposal is highly likely not to be discussed in parliament. Judging from an attempt to revisit the proposal in 2015, only a few organisations and officials spoke in favour of the proposal.
As the Member of Parliament from Lega party, Rossano Sasso, told Euronews, parties in Italy do not see the citizenship law as an issue.
We can talk about it, we have been discussing it since the summer, but I doubt it’s going to be discussed in parliament. For sure this will happen among opposition parties, but not among those parties that form the majority in parliament. Back in 2022 Italians didn’t vote for us to debate the ius scholae.
Here are the associations found among those that support the proposal for a reference in Italy:
- Italiani senza Cittadinanza and Conngi,
- Organisations like Idem Network, Libera, Gruppo Abele, A Buon Diritto, Società della Ragione,
- Parties such as Più Europa, Possibile, Partito Socialista, Radicali Italiani, and Partito della Rifondazione Comunista.
In the referendum page published by the Justice Ministry is clearly stated that the remaining requirements for a resident to obtain Italian citizenship would remain the same. That means that candidates for Italian citizenship must have language skills and sufficient funds as required in addition to other criteria.
