Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani has promised changes to the country's citizenship law in recent days, and the bill, called “Jus Italiae Law”, was presented this Saturday (05).
The proposal, signed by Paolo Barelli, president of the Forza Italia parliamentary front in the Chamber of Deputies, and Maurizio Gasparri, president of the Forza Italia parliamentary front in the Senate, brings restrictions for descendants of Italians and facilitates the process naturalization of children of immigrants.
Restriction and increase of fees
One of the main changes to the law of February 05, 1992, suggested in the text, concerns the exclusion of descendants of Italians born outside Italy. According to the project, “a foreigner with Italian ancestry will no longer be able to obtain citizenship if his parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were born abroad.”
However, to avoid questions of unconstitutionality, as in Roberto Menia's project, presented last year, the rule would be applied only to those born after the new law came into force.
The draft also suggests excluding rights for children adopted by descendants of Italians. The proposal states that “a person adopted abroad by Italian descendants will not obtain citizenship if the adoptive parents, grandparents and adoptive great-grandparents were born abroad.”
Furthermore, the Forza Italia proposal aims to increase the costs for citizenship applicants. The project gives municipalities the possibility of charging up to 600 euros for processing citizenship recognition procedures for descendants. Consulates could also charge the same amount for issuing the necessary documents. Currently, the value is 300 euros.
Facilitation for children of immigrants
In contrast to restrictions on descendants, the project aims to make it easier to obtain citizenship for children of immigrants who were born or arrived in Italy at an early age.
The new rule will allow foreigners born in Italy, or who arrived before the age of five and have lived continuously in Italy for at least ten years, to apply for citizenship at the age of 16, provided they have completed the compulsory educational cycle.
This relaxation is seen as an attempt to please sectors of the Italian left, which have long advocated a review of citizenship rules for immigrants and their descendants, and consequently to obtain enough votes.
Internal criticism
Despite being a Forza Italia project, “Legion of Italian Law” has already received criticism from within the party itself.
In a party WhatsApp group, a member expressed outrage at the proposal, calling it a “insult to the ancestral dignity and DNA of descendants of Italians”.
The message, which quickly spread, accuses the authors of the law of trying to “erase the identity of descendants of Italians”.
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