Home » BLOG EN MALTAWAY » tax legal expatriate international lawyer » From roots tourism to the cutting of Italian roots with the new decree on Italian citizenship

 

---

From roots tourism to the cutting of Italian roots with the new decree on Italian citizenship

 

For years now, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has insisted on root tourism, so much so that 2024 has been decreed “Year of Italian Roots” aimed at enhancing the link with the Italian territory for all oriundi, to discover places and customs of Italian culture through experiences in search of the roots of their Italian ancestors.

The numbers speak for themselves: Six million Italians live abroad, a figure that rises to 80 million if oriundi and descendants are included, and even to 260 million if all kinship ties are considered.

The economic value of these potential tourists who could go in search of and discover their Italian origins has been estimated at around 8 billion euros per year in Italy.

Now, the same Ministry with Minister Tajani cuts off all Italian roots with Decree-Law no. 36 of 28 March 2025, which radically changed the right to Italian citizenship by descent.

 

 

The new decree-law no. 36 issued on 28/3/2025 by the Italian government has radically changed the criteria for accessing Italian citizenship by descent for all Italian-descendants, considerably restricting, beyond all expectations, the possibility of claiming ius sanguinis descent only to the second generation or grandparents and no longer without the generation limits previously provided for by the legislation.

The legislation in force in Italy until 27 March 2025 recognised the right to apply for citizenship by descent from an Italian ancestor without generation limits.

 

Since 28 March, a decree-law with immediate effect from the same day has changed the rules.

The decree in fact, as per the Ministry’s press release, states that ‘descendants of Italian citizens, born abroad, will automatically be citizens for two generations only, i.e. only those who have at least one parent or grandparent born in Italy will be citizens from birth.

 

Children of Italians will automatically acquire citizenship if they are born in Italy or if, prior to their birth, one of their citizen parents resided for at least two continuous years in Italy.

 

The decree in fact recognises as Italian citizens as of 28 March 2025 anyone who can claim one of the following conditions:

– a citizen parent or adoptive parent was born in Italy;
– a citizen parent or adoptive parent was resident in Italy for at least two continuous years prior to the child’s birth or adoption date;
– a first-degree citizen ascendant of the citizen parent or adoptive parent was born in Italy.

 

 

The new decree does not only close the doors to Italian citizenship to those who boast the most distant descent from Italian ancestors, but also hits hard at Italians who have moved abroad in recent years.

 

These expatriate Italian citizens are effectively denied the possibility of passing on citizenship to their children and grandchildren, relegating them to second-class citizens, punished for the mere “guilt” of having left the country. A sharp and abrupt cut-off, depriving entire generations of the right to maintain the legal and identity link with the citizenship of their relatives.

 

A sharp and decisive cut to many Italian roots in the world!

 

We are closely following the debate underway in the Senate, at the Constitutional Affairs Commission, where authoritative constitutionalists have raised numerous criticisms of the recent decree on citizenship, considering it unconstitutional for various reasons:

 

• The instrument used, namely the decree-law, is unconstitutional, since the requirements of necessity and urgency required for its use do not exist. In fact, this is a complex matter – such as citizenship – that should not be amended with emergency instruments, especially when the amendments have immediate and retroactive effect, drastically reducing a fundamental right.
• The content of the decree is unconstitutional, since it introduces retroactive effects that affect those who had already acquired an imprescriptible and non-derogable right to Italian citizenship on the basis of the law in force at the time of their birth. From the late 19th century until 27 March 2025, the Italian legal system recognised the right to apply for citizenship by descent from an Italian ancestor, with no limit of generations. This right was suddenly cancelled, depriving millions of people of a recognition that was their de facto and de jure right.
• It is unconstitutional because it violates the principle of legitimate expectations, harming those who had acquired the right to citizenship from birth and legitimately relied on the right that had already arisen.
• The rule according to which ‘the status of citizen of the interested party shall be recognised, in compliance with the legislation applicable on 27 March 2025, following an application, accompanied by the necessary documentation, submitted to the competent consular office or mayor no later than 23:59 (Rome time) of the same date’ is unconstitutional. After that date, it is no longer possible to obtain recognition of citizenship, even for those who would have been born of Italian parents or had already gathered all the necessary documentation.

Thus, for example:

1. A child born abroad of an Italian parent is no longer a citizen if the birth certificate was not transcribed before 27 March and if, with the new rules, he can no longer claim the right to do so
2. An oriundo who, despite having collected all the documentation necessary for the administrative recognition of his Italian citizenship by birth from Italian descendants, could not access the filing of the same at the Consulate because his appointment had been fixed after 27 March or had yet to be fixed, is no longer an Italian citizen.
3. The child born – or soon to be born – into a family where the father or mother had previously been recognised as an Italian citizen, and perhaps also the brother or sister whose birth certificate had already been transcribed, is not an Italian citizen because he or she did not meet the necessary requirements for citizenship recognition after 27 March. This creates the absurd situation of divided families, with children and siblings having different citizenships and fundamental rights.

• It is unconstitutional because it transforms an automatic right, which was acquired by birth, into a discretionary concession subject to new and restrictive criteria.
• It is unconstitutional because it creates discrimination and unequal treatment.

 

It is highly likely that the decree will still be approved by Parliament, where parliamentarians often show little attention or interest in the unconstitutionality profiles of the rules they are about to vote on.

In many cases, the decision to convert a decree into law appears to be dictated more by the need to conform to the directives of one’s own party than by a real assessment of the legal and substantive effects of the measure and regardless of constitutional consistency, thus ending up compromising a fundamental right such as that of citizenship.

We will certainly no longer speak of root tourism, but of a clean cut of Italian roots through a provision that gives a sharp, sudden and retroactive cut to the right to Italian, and consequently European, citizenship, which we expatriates must take note of for future generations, but which will surely trigger off an endless series of disputes due to the alleged unconstitutionality of the rules that are about to be converted into law.

 

The reform approved by the March 2025 decree-law therefore limits the automatic recognition of Italian citizenship to the second generation, i.e. grandparents, while the bill would also add an obligation to maintain an effective link with Italy by exercising at least once every 25 years one of the rights or duties of a citizen such as renewing a passport, voting or paying taxes if due.

The decree also adds that in disputes concerning the ascertainment of the status of statelessness and Italian citizenship, oaths and testimonial evidence are not permitted.

Obviously, this is a decree-law and it will be necessary to see whether any changes will be made when it is converted within 60 days.

It will also be important to see what criteria and amendments to the proposed citizenship bill will be made and how they will be translated into the new citizenship law to be enacted in the future, to see if there will still be margins and spaces for the recognition of ius sanguinis citizenship, which was largely limited by the recent decree.

 

For further information, advice and citizenship questions contact us

MALTAWAY CONTACTS for ITALIAN CITIZENSHIP and
FAVOURABLE TAX REGIME FOR NEW RESIDENTS IN ITALY

For any clarification, advice, legal opinion, support with procedures and applications for both Italian citizenship and special taxation schemes in Italy, do not hesitate to contact us, Maltaway’s professionals put at your disposal their International Practice of over 40 years

 

CONTACTS MALTAWAY