Abstract
The discussion about dual citizenship in Italy was and is determined by a dominant theme. Primarily, this topic is related to questions of migration, in the sense of both emigration and immigration. After the Second World War, the problem of Italians in areas “lost in war” was added to this. Under these conditions, this chapter examines the case of Italy with a focus on the evolution of its citizenship law. Already in the first basic citizenship law of 1912 and although originally against dual citizenship, the young state wanted to maintain links with the large diaspora of Italian emigrants. Including Italians abroad as citizens across several generations was fully compatible with an ethno-cultural conception of national identity. Italy also permits the so-called italiani oriundi – i.e. persons of Italian ancestry living permanently abroad – to regain Italian citizenship if they can prove that none of their direct ancestors has explicitly renounced Italian citizenship. The second group of residents abroad for whom Italy promotes the restoration of citizenship are ethnic Italians in the neighbouring territories of Slovenia and Croatia, lost after World War II. Unlike for the italiani oriundi, these latter groups must establish a certain familiarity with the Italian culture and language. The final category discussed in the chapter are non-Italian immigrants whose numbers have been growing substantially since the 1990s. Although dual citizenship is tolerated in residence-based naturalisations, these are comparatively rare. Initiatives by the centre-left to introduce moderate forms of ius soli or ius culturae (naturalisation based on years of schooling) for the second generation have not thus far been successful.