Italy is the EU Member State with the highest number of immigrants acquiring citizenship. In 2017, Italy granted citizenship to about 146,600 people, which accounted for 18% of the total number of citizenships granted by all EU Member States, according to Eurostat figures.

There has also been a significant upward trend in the number of new citizens, peaking in 2016 with nearly 201,600 naturalisations, which was over 20% of total naturalisations in the EU that year. Although naturalisations in 2017 declined from the previous two years, there were still more naturalisations than in 2014.

Naturalisations in Italy 2006-2017 (in thousands)

Source: Eurostat

What drives the growth in number of new citizens?

As Eduardo Barberis, researcher at the University of Urbino, explains, the high number of citizenship acquisitions in recent years is related to the 2002 ‘Bossi-Fini’ law, which provided for regularisations of legal status in many cases. From 2002 to 2004, approximately 700,000 people regularised their status.

In Italy, migrants may apply for citizenship only after 10 years of residence. Thus, those who regularised their status following the passage of the Bossi-Fini law were able to ask for citizenship beginning in 2012.

In addition, there are often two or three years of complex bureaucratic procedures involved in applying for and receiving citizenship, which means that the individuals who regularised their status with the Bossi-Fini law likely needed 12-13 years to acquire citizenship, which would happen around 2014 to 2016 if they regularised their status within a year or two after passage of the law.

On top of the Bossi-Fini regularisations, Italy started becoming a destination country for immigrants in the 1990s, so the number of immigrants was increasing. Similarly, these immigrants could start applying for citizenship 10 years following their arrival. Thus, acquisitions of citizenship were already increasing between 2000-2010.

Citizenship for migrant children

In 2017, 49% of citizenship acquisitions were by people under age 30. Despite this figure, it can still be difficult for children of foreign parents to acquire Italian citizenship, even if they were born and raised in Italy. Foreign citizens who were born in and have resided in Italy without interruption until the age of 18 can acquire Italian citizenship if they apply before turning 19. This procedure can be complex, and thus the previous government attempted to reform the citizenship law, trying unsuccessfully to ease the requirements for children born or educated in Italy.