Until this month, to claim Italian citizenship all that was needed was to have an ancestor with the nationality from anytime after March 17, 1861. Under a new law introduced on March 28, a more recent relational tie is just one of the requirements needed to become Italian, the country's official gazette published this week.
To apply for citizenship under the updated legislation, an applicant must have an Italian parent or grandparent, have lived in Italy for a minimum of three years prior to the application and have a proficient grasp of Italian. Language proficiency will be tested through a 5 part examination that was previously only used to claim citizenship through marriage or naturalization.
The new law could be ratified in just 60 days, although some changes can be expected in the next 30-60 days, a spokesperson from the Italian embassy in Israel told the Jerusalem Post.
"The new norms were approved through the adoption of a government decree less than one week ago. The new decree allows the immediate entry into force of some provisions, which are regarded as urgent," the spokesperson said. "Such provisions are part of a broader draft bill aimed at a major reform on citizenship, still to be finalized."
When asked whether the new decree would enable exceptions for the great-grandchildren of Italian Holocaust survivors, the spokesperson stressed that it is still too early to predict. "The wider draft bill is currently under discussion and consideration. Once fully adopted, the new law on citizenship will establish a more comprehensive discipline of all citizenship-related issues, which are quite a number, and the whole framework will be completed," he assured.
How many descendants could lose their citizenship claim?
In the years prior and during Nazi occupation, Mussolini’s Fascist government introduced a number of laws limiting the civil dignities of Jewry, according to the New York Times, which led to around 7,000 fleeing for Western Europe and the United States.
Among the many laws, some of which came about before Nazi occupation, Jews were forbidden from attending public or private schools, holding professorships in all universities, being members of the civil service and military, and holding peddlers’ permits and shopkeepers’ licenses.
In addition to the 7,000 that chose to flee Italy, the government began expelling Jews to Nazi concentration camps in 1943. Approximately 8,000 Italian Jews were killed, BBC News reported in 2011, and many survivors elected not to return. In the city of Trieste, which once held one of Italy’s largest Jewish communities, 1,177 Jews were deported from December 7, 1943, to February 25, 1945, according to Yad Vashem. Of the 1177 Jews, only 97 survived.
The change in law may also impact dual nationals, as those living outside the country who do not pay tax, vote or renew their IDs may lose their citizenship altogether. The Institute of Jewish Policy Research found in 2017 that Italy was among three countries that saw a significant uptick in Jews making aliyah - making an unknown number of olim potentially subject to the new law.
Italy's population problems
Despite cracking down on the citizenship applications, Italy has made numerous efforts to attract new populations to towns with dwindling numbers - famously offering €1 homes with the expectation of renovation and rejuvenation in many of its emptier cities. Some cities had even offered to pay people to move there.
The country’s foreign ministry said that between 2014 and 2024, the number of Italian citizens residing abroad increased by 40%, from 4.6 million to 6.4 million - further exasperating much of Italy’s population issue.
Italy has a population of around 59 million, which has been shrinking for the past decade. The foreign ministry has estimated that under the old rules, 60 to 80 million people worldwide were eligible for citizenship.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has previously suggested that Italy could overcome its demographic decline by seeking Christians of Italian ancestry from nations like Venezuela.
Critics of ancestry-based citizenship say it is grossly unfair, offering nationality to people who had no meaningful connection with Italy.
“Being an Italian citizen is a serious matter, the granting of citizenship is a serious matter,” Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said Friday, according to CNN. “Unfortunately, over the years, there have been abuses and requests for citizenship that went a bit beyond the true interest in our country.”
"Considering that the possible absence of effective constraints with the Republic in the hands of a growing number of citizens, which could reach a size equal to or greater than the population resident in the national territory, constitutes a risk factor serious and current for national security and, by virtue of of Italy's membership in the European Union, of the other States members thereof," the decree read.
Reuters contributed to this report.