Immigration and Citizenship: Participation and Self-organisation of Immigrants in the Veneto (North Italy) (original) (raw)
Related papers
This paper focuses on processes of political integration for immigrants in the Italian context, constituting as it does an understudied topic. It does so by looking at one specific community, Albanian immigrants, who have been typically heavily stigmatized. While Albanian immigration in Italy has been a focus of previous research, no consideration so far has been given to naturalization and its influence on other political processes at the level of immigrants' daily lives. Through the meanings which participants of this research attribute to citizenship and their acting as political agents, the paper unpacks the relations between this "status passage" (Glaser and Strauss 1971) and the political integration of immigrants. The findings show a very complex picture in which multiple factors and interactions play an important role. Legally speaking, Italian citizenship is a precondition for immigrants to enjoy the right to vote in elections at all levels, which participants considered a significant indicator of their political integration. Therefore, the political integration of immigrants is heavily conditioned by naturalization, which gives access to political rights, voice and representation as regulated at the state level. However, when considering the role of age and social capital in processes of political integration, there is also reason to believe that the political mobilization and participation of the youngest and most well-educated participants is not as exclusively attached to such formal recognition as a political subject.
Access to Citizenship and Integration Policies in Italy
Is access to citizenship a meaningful parameter for migrants’ integration in the Italian context? According to the Migrant Integration Policy Index report (2011), and the Immigrant Citizens Survey (2012) access to citizenship, through marriage or naturalization, provides various benefits. While for EU citizens the only advantage of obtaining citizenship is political participation, there are other consequences that can foster integration of non-EU citizens, such as higher means of educational attainment, full access to labor market, secure residence and freedom of movement in the EU zone. Particularly, political participation, thus the the possibility to take part to the democratic decision making process, is key for integration. Notwithstanding that, however the strict legal framework and the obstacles to its implementation lead foreigners to discharge such option. Furthermore, formally obtaining citizenship does not necessarily imply full integration, as it does not eliminate social and structural racism and discrimination. This paper aims to investigate whether access to citizenship is an appropriate parameter to measure migrants’ integration in the Italian context. It analyzes the legal framework concerning access to citizenship, the related policy implementation, and the nexus between naturalization and integration in the Italian context. The methodology used in this research is literature review of primary sources.
European nation-states were originally built on the idea of a language, a culture and a people sharing the same territory by birth; as the way to democracy slowly took its steps, gradually, all different categories of society were granted political rights following social and civic rights, like in classical Marshall's theory on citizenship. Furthermore, the necessity to avoid wars and the spread of nationalism in Europe led -during the second half of the 20 th Century -to a process of integration at supranational level, which we today call the European Union. Citizenship of the Union is still granted on the basis of nationality, which is a way of reaffirming "ius sanguinis" at another level. Some examples of European States that have decided to grant some political rights (at local administrative level) to foreign residents, and the principles included in the Council of Europe Convention on participation of foreigners in public life at local level signed in Strasbourg in 1992 but ratified by few European States, show anyway that a new concept of citizenship can be adopted at EU level which does not contradict the idea of the EU itself, but on the contrary it develops it towards a more open and comprehensive idea of citizenship based on residence instead that on nationality.
Annali della Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione Università degli Studi di Catania, 2019
Migrant descendants associations have recently become widespread in Italy principally because of the restrictive regulations of Italian citizenship law. Their main claims focus on this issue: a redefinition of the law that takes into consideration the changed conditions of the country after migration flows. The reasons for their protests, which may explain their involvement in this special form of associations on the move, are basically the lack of recognition of equal opportunities, and exclusion from social and political participation. The paper aims to give a broad outline of second generation migrant associations in Italy, and the reasons for their protests; it also aims to understand their status in society and the sources of the choice of their mobilisation as movements. This will be examined through direct and indirect narrations (website forums and focus groups) and analyzed on a comparative basis. The objective is to stress the differences between the official voice of the ...
Ius soli the Italian way. The long and winding road to reform the citizenship law
Contemporary Italian Politics , 2018
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.
On Active Citizenship: Discourses and Language about Youth and Migrants in Italy
Journal of Civil Society, 2014
The civic and political participation of young people and especially young migrants, who have limited rights of citizenship, is still a significant problem in Italy. Young people struggle to find opportunities and feel excluded from politics: the political agenda tends to see them more as a problem than as a resource. In this article, we illustrate the results of research to understand the dynamics of political and civic participation of young people and what the policy does in their favour. A content analysis of a corpus of European and Italian legislation, policy and planning documents has been undertaken. We also conducted six in-depth interviews with politicians and representatives of Italian nongovernmental organizations in order to investigate (a) policy priorities and institutional points of view, (b) consistency between these priorities and European programmes, and (c) European Union support for the policy actions and projects promoted in Italy about youth. The results showed a general difficulty for young people to 'engage' and be engaged in civic and political activities. There is also a gap between the political level and an effective investment which will recognize young people as a real resource.