Referendum on migrant citizenship in Italy: ‘This law is unfair’

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  Helen D’Haens

  Journalist from Italy

The question returns regularly in Italian public debate: what makes someone truly Italian? The country has strict legislation for this, which largely restricts the children of migrants. They can only apply for a passport after eighteen years of age and then they often have to wait years, even if they were born in Italy.

A group of young people have now collected enough names to hold a referendum on the issue.

At the edge of the basketball court in Castel Volturno, near Naples, 17-year-old Miracolo describes the problem faced by many migrant children. Although he was born and went to school in this city, he is still considered a Nigerian by law. His parents are from there, but he has never been there himself.

Because he is not allowed to travel freely, he had to miss three international tournaments of his basketball team this year. “My friends can travel with just their identity card. I have to apply for papers to leave the country.”

In February 2023, he went to the police station, where the purpose of his visit was asked and his fingerprints were recorded. Officially, the waiting period for these documents is several months, but Miracolo only received it in April 2024, after more than a year of waiting. “All competition was over by then.”

He is certainly not the only one who experiences these inconveniences. There are approximately one million children of migrants living in Italy. 800,000 of them were born on Italian soil, says Daniela Ionica from the task force ‘Italians without citizenship’.

As the daughter of a Romanian mother, Ionica knew firsthand that the problems that migrant children face become even greater over time. It took another five years after her eighteenth birthday before she got a passport, a time that often extends even longer. “In the meantime, we are not allowed to study or work abroad, vote or work for the government.”

“It’s unfair,” Ionica thinks, “that kids who grow up with Italian friends, who speak Romanian, Neapolitan, or any other dialect, at some point get a career different, simply because they have different documents.”

Her group ‘Italians without Citizenship’ was one of the forces behind the petition which should now lead to a referendum. “We made the call online and we got a lot of support from actors, singers and influencers. Young people especially seemed to support us.”

More than 600,000 signatures they collected are now being verified by the Constitutional Court. If everything turns out to be correct, the referendum should be held in the spring of next year.

Italians will then be formally asked if the deadline for adult migrants to apply for citizenship can be reduced. That term is now ten years in Italy, compared to five in the Netherlands. “So children can get citizenship faster through their parents,” reasons Ionica.

The campaigner does not want to say whether the campaign has a chance of success. “It will not be easy to get more than half of Italians to the polls, in a country where people often do not vote even in national elections. But at least we’ll keep the issue on our political radar.”

She does not expect any support from the same politicians. The radical right-wing government of Giorgia Meloni is trying to curb migration and fears that relaxing the rules could have a knock-on effect.

“The politicians who are now in power do not understand that our country has already changed,” says Ionica. About 8 percent of Italy’s residents are immigrants, a percentage that is increasing gradually, partly due to the aging population. “Whether they change the legislation or not, there are migrant children. We are part of society. And it will stay that way.”

The basketball player Miracolo is not waiting for the result of the referendum. He wants to hire a lawyer immediately and apply for a passport as soon as he turns 18. “With an Italian passport everything is easy. You don’t have to apply for more and more documents or payment for things. That would make me very happy.”

After high school he would like to play basketball professionally. Not in Italy, but in Canada. “The players there have a bit more fighting spirit. And it doesn’t matter what country you come from.”