Category Archives: Emigration
Italian Citizenship Once More
La Farnesina
Well, enough ranting and raving. I know several people (including myself), who share Gianni Stecchino’s predicament. I would be interested in knowing how many of us there are and in exploring the possibility of getting something done by concerted mass action. Could we write and all sign a letter of protest to the MAE? Could we write letters to the NIAF? Can we lobby friends and acquaintances here and in Italy? Can we take out announcements in the Italo Americano and other publications? Can we establish a formal organization of “disenfranchised Italians”, with an official agenda, a war chest, and whatever else it takes? Any other ideas?
Reply to this post if you want to be heard, and we’ll see where this goes.
Italian Citizenship – continued
Repubblica Italiana
Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why the current citizenship regulations that apply to Italians who became naturalized Americans are capricious and inconsistent. First off it makes no sense that there should be a cutoff date, totally arbitrary, that separates the “haves” from the “have-nots”, so to speak. Why should it make a material difference WHEN a person became a naturalized American? Why should a person who became naturalized in September 1992 be allowed to retain his Italian citizenship, whereas a person who did the exact same thing in March of the same year should be deprived of it? Allowing double citizenship is either good or bad: if it’s good, then make the law retroactive and let everybody have Italian citizenship who otherwise meets the requirements for it, if it’s bad then rescind the law and let NOONE have it.
Second, the current rules lead to absurd family situations. Take the case of Italian Gianni Stecchino who emigrated to the USA in 1980 at the age of 25. After a couple of years he marries and has a child, let’s say in 1983. In 1985, after the canonical 5 years have elapsed, Gianni becomes a naturalized American. Meantime the child grows up in America, does not speak Italian, feels only a distant connection with his father’s country of birth; in short, he is for all intents and purposes American. Nevertheless, the child can now easily claim Italian citizenship, because he was born BEFORE his father’s naturalization, whereas his father cannot. The father, who was born in Italy, who is fluent in Italian, who knows its history and culture, who grew up there and has undoubtedly friends and connections there, CANNOT be a citizen. Even more absurdly, it is possible to concoct scenarios where persons who are two or three generations removed from Italy can be citizens, but Gianni Stecchino, born and educated there, of full Italian blood, cannot.
Thirdly, the present rules fly in the face of efforts that Italy is making to stem the phenomenon of the fuga dei cervelli, i.e., the wholesale emigration of highly educated and capable people to lands that offer greater opportunities. The Italian government is offering subsidies to facilitate the return of these emigres, but at the same time throwing up obstacles to the closer connections sought by thousands of former citizens who in many cases have experienced spectacular success in the United States.
For such people, made to go through all these artificial hoops, it is impossible to look upon the predicament the Italians are in with illegal immigration from Africa, the Balkans, Central Europe, etc., without a touch of schadenfreude. Are the Italian politicians who make the rule, and the attendant Italian bureaucracy, too dense to understand that the wish of former Italians to be reintegrated into the Italian state is a compliment to Italian society and can only bring benefits to Italy?
The Conundrum of Italian Citizenship
Mille lire
For the majority of people in the world the citizenship issue never arises: they are citizens of the country in which they are born and of which their parents are citizens. For large numbers of people who have emigrated or otherwise been displaced from their country of birth the citizenship issue can be vexing. A case in point is the status of those Italians who became U.S. citizens prior to August 15, 1992.
If an Italian immigrant became a naturalized American citizen before this date he automatically forfeited his Italian citizenship. This was a little-known fact, because large number of immigrants never bothered to register with the AIRE (Anagrafe Italiani Residenti all’Estero), largely because the existence of the AIRE was itself a little-known fact. Many immigrants, therefore, went through the American naturalization process without being aware of the negative consequence that such a move would have on their Italian citizenship. Certainly some of them, had they known, would have paused to consider, and to perhaps change their plans. In any case, they would have made a more informed decision, which is always preferable.
Many of these people would now like to recover their lost Italian citizenship, but when they try to do so they run against bureaucratic restrictions which seem capricious at best and downright punitive at worst. The whole issue is clouded by inconsistencies and obfuscation to the point where many people eventually throw up their hands in frustration. There are many reasons why this, while exasperating for the individuals involved, is bad for Italy herself.
In the next post I will outline some of these inconsistencies. For now I wish to make an additional point: this is an Italian political issue. It is a political issue because of the Legge Tremaglia, which in 2001 gave Italian citizens residing abroad the right to vote in Italian national elections. Italian parties have now to contend with a block of votes coming from abroad, from electors who are largely ignorant of Italian politics and Italian issues, and who are effectively out of the reach of political messages emanating from Italy.
The pros and cons of the Legge Tremaglia are still being debated (I personally think it does not make much sense), but it is as of now the law of the land. Which makes the question of Italian citizenship for Italians resident abroad a political football, because it became apparent in the 2006 elections that foreign-resident voters tended to vote preferentially to the left of the general Italian electorate. Which, following the consequential chain to its conclusion, makes the idea of enlarging the foreign electorate an idea non grata to Berlusconi’s center-right government. So there!
The Italian Diaspora
The New World
The United States was a favorite, though not exclusive, destination for Italian emigrants. The saga of the emigrant, a single person or a complete family, began with the decision to take the fateful step. Then there followed the economic necessity of saving up for the trip, the legal and bureaucratic requirements to satisfy, the long waiting periods. Then there was the trip itself, often an adventure in overcrowded shipboard quarters which afforded little privacy or comfort. But all this was as nothing compared to the daunting task ahead: achieving success in the New World, overcoming the language barrier and the myriad other cultural differences to which one had to adapt, often in the teeth of prejudice and overt discrimination The lore of Ellis Island and of the scattered Little Italy’s is well-known, the list of Italian achievements and contributions to the economic and social enrichment of the host country has often been trumpeted. What has been glossed over is the personal and family consequences of the emigration for thousands of “average” families, the dislocations that took place, the hundreds of thousands of compromised relationships, the agonizing ambivalence of millions, fractured by the event and unable to become whole again. For many immigrants the consequences of the move echoed through the succeeding generations, perhaps ebbing at the third, if not later.
Every immigrant or child of immigrants has a story to tell. In the next post I will tell you MY story. If you, the reader, wish to submit YOUR story you are welcome to do so. I will be happy to publish the more interesting ones on this blog.
finestItalian
