Ius soli the Italian way. The long and winding road to reform the citizenship law

Abstract

This article looks at the public debate and political activities concerning the reform of the ius soli provisions in the Italian Nationality Law. It describes the current Nationality Law in its rationales and functioning and provides statistical descriptions of immigrants and naturalization patterns in Italy. The paper offers a critical review of the 2017 political and public debate concerning the reform of Italy’s citizenship legislation, underlining recurrent patterns and path dependencies in comparison with previous experiences since the approval of the Nationality Law. The analysis is placed comparatively within the larger picture of how European democracies have been responding to the challenges of governing migration, while promoting the integration of growing numbers of individuals of immigrant background in Italy’s population.