Reforming the Citizenship Law:a goal he has been waiting for for 30 years

Of Fioralba Duma And Paula Baudet Vivanco

The law on Italian citizenship has turned thirty, but those who suffer it have nothing to celebrate.They are indeed over a million children, adolescents and adults to remain foreigners in their country, hanging by the thread of their residence permit, precisely because of that law which was already old.All sons and daughters of immigrants but also children of the history of Italy in recent decades, who have grown up amidst its transformations and contradictions, and who struggle to enjoy full rights due to regulations that prove inadequate to the times.

What is antiquated first of all are the principles on which the law on citizenship was already based in 1992 because the legislators of the time had dedicated themselves more than anything else to celebrating the Italian descendants rooted thousands of kilometers away, proving incapable of fully recognizing themselves even in those who already was taking his first steps or would have arrived in Italian cities while still a child.

Such a limited vision has continued to guide Italian politicians over the years, so much so that there has been much chatter about it, which continued in the current legislature, but until 5 February 2022, the "birthday of the law", no there had been no concrete improvement.Absurdly, Parliament had shown interest and gathered a large majority only when it was actually a question of making the law and the lives of those directly involved worse. As had happened in 2018 with the vote and application of the new restrictions contained in the first Security decree, such as the possibility of revoking citizenship from those who had not inherited it from their parents and the extension to four years of the administrative procedures to have a response to requests for Italian “naturalization”.Another brick added to the wall of a thirty-year-old law, already too heavy on the shoulders of those directly involved.So while unrecognized Italians always hope that a less unjust law will arrive, which will give them back even a little faith in the system, in reality they still find themselves fighting alone against the extreme discretion of the one in force, trying to satisfy the difficult income and residence criteria or hoping that a traffic fine from the past, because this too happened, does not become a reason for rejection.In such a repelling context, every bureaucratic obstacle, every administration office, every reluctant official, and today even the anonymous digital interface of citizenship procedures, can transform into a hostile frontier, invisible to others.

Read also >> The battle for a new citizenship for the children of immigrants born or raised in Italy

In such a discouraging picture, however, a glimmer of hope has opened: on 9 March the deputies of the Constitutional Affairs Commission they finally voted for the adoption of a unified law reform text signed by the President of the Commission, Giuseppe Brescia.This is the "Ius Scholae", which links citizenship to schooling and therefore recognizes for the first time specific access for those who grow up in Italy.A reform that needs to be improved, as requested by those directly involved in the Italians without citizenship movement CoNNGI developing and presenting some amendments to the deputies together with the associations of the Citizenship Table, but which already has to deal with theobstructionism of the League and the Brothers of Italy represented by more than 600 pejorative amendments.

While Parliament finally moves, it's a pity that only one year before the end of the Legislature, Italy's task today is to grow further and fully mature its awareness of the great injustice for which it has been responsible for too long:in fact our country continues to "produce" new generations without full rights, as in the case of the Roman Sonny, "Italian by birth and by growth but a stranger by law" or the Sardinian Domenika, who waited a long time before having the income necessary to apply for citizenship and after 4 years he still hasn't received a response, or from Rabia, who by a hair's breadth was not born in Italy, or finally from Clara, who was born in Italy but has problems with residency.Their personal stories and photos and those of many others are collected in the Campaign "Citizenship Objective”, created and promoted by the Italians without citizenship movement and by Active Citizenship and relaunched for the thirtieth anniversary of law 91/92.So that those who live that law every day don't continue to remain invisible.

Bia

I'm Rabia but everyone calls me Bia.Mine is a particular story because in reality I had to be born in Italy and perhaps today my life would be different.My parents had been in Italy for years, my father since the end of the 80s and my mother had joined him a few years later.But fate, my grandmother's health, got in the way and my mother returned to Pakistan during the last months of her pregnancy to give birth to me there, in 1997.He managed to return to Italy only some time later, holding me tightly in his arms as we traveled by plane to reach Cremona, which would become my city.I often think about it, about the fact that I was almost born here and that maybe I could have become Italian at 18, like my sister and brother because the law requires it.Today I would not still be hanging on to the residence permit, I would travel a lot and free from anxiety, without being excluded due to the timing of the visa or dependent on the unknowns of its issuance.There are some memories, in particular some photos, which awaken some thoughts about my condition, about what has been and what will not be.There is one photo in particular that makes me happy and saddened at the same time:I was little with the dress given to me by my grandparents before their deaths, so far away from us.It's the only memory I have of them.I happen to think that with the Italian passport perhaps I could have met them, known what the love of grandparents means.

I think of my many dreams, the first of all, that of joining the armed forces and inspiring other women to be strong, the many of us who grew up in Italy and who fight against the retrograde mentality and traditions of our parents.It's a shame that it is the Italian laws and the bureaucracy of this country that reject us, that force us to abandon our dreams and still fight just to be recognized.

Sunday

My name is Domenika, known as Niki and I was born in Guayaquil, a city in Ecuador, in 1988.At the age of 5 my life changed drastically because my mother made the difficult and courageous choice to emigrate very far to work, all the way to Sardinia, taking me with her.

In all these years in Italy one of the most beautiful and important goals was being able to graduate in Nursing.But after that it was all uphill, because wanting to quickly become economically independent hindered me in obtaining the long-term residence permit, as well as in my application for Italian citizenship, because both required proof of a certain income.Unfortunately, along both paths, which were supposed to allow me more stability and to safely participate in some public competitions, I encountered difficulties despite having now achieved the security of a permanent contract at a private hospital in Olbia.Because the bureaucracy is so complicated with those who have a foreign passport, even if they grew up here, that a few problems are enough to block you completely and for years, such as the error of a CAF or the confusion between the offices of two police stations.And what saddens me today is above all the disappointment with the dream of Italian citizenship, first shattered by politicians and then by the unknowns regarding my application.

In fact, already with the failure of the citizenship law reform in 2017 and the approval of the security decree in 2018, which affected me personally, I had felt deeply disappointed and had thought about leaving Italy to specialize in Australia or Germany. .But in the end I didn't run away and I steeled myself, deciding to send the citizenship request despite the bitterness.Except that after the maximum 4 years of waiting for my application I still don't know what happened to the application, I haven't received any answers, and I don't know if I will ever be a citizen of this country.At this point I could also apply because my husband is Italian, they say it's a much simpler path, but I don't find it entirely right.Because I am a daughter of Italy and not a wife.

Clara

My name is Clara with a "C" and I was born 23 years ago in Trebisacce, in the province of Cosenza, into an Albanian family.At that time my parents were not only illegal, but they also worked hard in the fields and, thinking of my good, they sent me to my grandparents in Albania so that they could take better care of me.At three years old I was already back in Italy, my parents missed me too much, and so I started kindergarten in Calabria.I still have a photo of my first day at nursery, where you can see how happy I was with the new beginning.

I spent my first 18 years in bureaucratic limbo, renewing my permit to stay in this country of mine, missing school days for appointments at the police station, issuing fingerprints as if I were a criminal.I had to apply for tourist visas, which were very complicated to obtain, to travel with my language high school class in the Europe that was raising and training me.More and more aware of running, blocking and tumbling in order to live the same experiences as my school and life classmates.

In 2016, when I turned 18, I thought this obstacle course would finally end, I was confident in Italian laws and hoping to finally be recognized by my country.But even when it came time to apply for Italian citizenship, bureaucracy still blocked my way.On the one hand, the Albanian state had registered me in the passport as Klara, that is, with the "K" - and what an effort it was to then change it to Clara, my real name!On the other hand, the Italian State considered my two years with my grandparents as an irremediable interruption of residence and condemned me to a new application for citizenship, this time with the addition of the income requirement that is required of children of immigrants not born in Italy.

After a series of acrobatics and as many trips between Bari, Rome and Tirana, today I am finally Clara with the "C" for everyone, born in Italy, raised in Locorotondo and ambassador of my village, capable of speaking 5 languages ​​and graduated in Cultural Mediation all University of Macerata, with a great desire to test myself in another European country and at an age where I can still do it.But I am still hanging on to obstacles born with me, obstacles born from a law that transformed my family's life choices into mistakes.

Sonny

I was born in Rome more than thirty years ago and the capital is the only city where I really feel at home.The one place all my roads lead to.Like the Gemelli Hospital, where I was born or the college of the Marian Franciscan nuns, to which I was entrusted after my parents separated.And then there is Ostia, of which I retain some of the most beautiful memories of my childhood, such as the photo of my 6 year old when my mother dressed me in the traditional clothes of her origins.I was small and naive at the time, and thinking about it still makes my heart open, but I already knew one thing:that my mother was from another continent.I just couldn't imagine how much this would affect my life.It wasn't simply the fact of being one of the few black children on the street where we lived, at school or at the oratory.But above all, to hang on, year after year, to the permission granted by others.Having to ask permission to stay in my city, in this country of mine, and discovering how high the wall could be to climb to reach the goal of Italian citizenship, as heavy as thirty years of an unjust law.A goal that continues to elude me today, even though my request for citizenship dates back to 2004.

Yet I have achieved several goals.I played basketball at a high level, although without ever being able to wear the blue shirt because I was a "foreigner".I have represented Italy in several international street dance championships although always with the limitations of not being able to cross borders with an Italian document.I worked on television, first as a dancer then as a choreographer and finally as a correspondent and author of in-depth programs on Rai.But despite all this, I will continue to remain a foreigner to this nation of mine as long as the law so decides.Italian by birth and growth, foreigner by law.

(preview image: Objective Citizenship)