Political debate in Italy over new proposal to reform citizenship law
A proposal to grant Italian citizenship to foreign nationals who complete 10 years of education has caused a political split within the coalition government in Rome.
Italy’s far-right Lega party has described the proposal as a “summer whim,” but the ambition of the center-right Forza Italia party to introduce a new reform of citizenship law based on years of study in Italy appears to be gaining momentum.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 50th edition of the Cernobbio Economic Forum over the weekend, Deputy Prime Minister and Forza Italia leader Antonio Tajani once again stated that there is a need for a comprehensive debate on this issue, but we will not back down.
The issue of granting citizenship to children born to immigrants has long been at the heart of Italian politics.
Tajani has called for a review of the current law, which dates back to 1992, that makes the process difficult.
Under the law, individuals who aren’t born to Italian parents must have 10 years of continuous residence in the country before they can apply for citizenship.
As an alternative, Tajani proposed that Italy adopt the so-called “Lo Ius Scholae” principle, under which foreign citizens would be granted citizenship if they completed 10 years of compulsory education in Italy.
This change will affect a large number of Italians living in Italy, as according to the Italian Ministry of Education, about 65% of the approximately one million foreign students returning to school next September are born in Italy.
Tajani remains a close ally of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, but his party’s move hasn’t been welcomed by his coalition partners.
Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party and the hardline Lega party are both staunchly anti-immigration and have long opposed revising the current law.
The last attempt at reform was in 2015, and despite advocacy from organizations such as the activist group Italians Without State, little progress has been made since then.
