Rule Change Hits Americans Seeking Italian Citizenship: 'Real Gut Punch'

Newsweek

2 days ago

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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Italy's decision to tighten its citizenship rules, blocking applicants from getting recognized through their great-grandparents, has been "a real gut punch" for descendants of Italian migrants in the U.S. hoping to formalize their connection to the European country.
"I've always been very interested in my Italian heritage, and was excited to have the opportunity to call myself a true Italian and to someday perhaps live and work in Italy," Jesse Hughes, a Pennsylvania resident, told Newsweek. "The rule change was a real gut punch for me."
The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was contacted by email on Friday for comment for this article.
Italy's decision to tighten its citizenship rules has upset some Italian Americans hoping to formalize their connection to the country.
Italy's decision to tighten its citizenship rules has upset some Italian Americans hoping to formalize their connection to the country.
Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty
Why It Matters
Until last week, Italy allowed foreign nationals with an Italian ancestor alive after March 17, 1861 to apply for citizenship under what is called "jure sanguinis," or citizenship by descent.
But growing criticism of the rule, which many said allowed people with little connection to the country to get a convenient passport, and a surge in applications in recent years have led the Italian government to change its application requirements. Last week, Italy announced that only foreign nationals with Italian parents or grandparents will now be allowed to seek citizenship.
"Being an Italian citizen is a serious thing. It's not a game to get a passport that allows you to go shopping in Miami," Italy's Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani said during a news conference in Rome on March 28.
While there is no official data showing how many U.S. nationals have obtained Italian citizenship through this process, the number could easily be in the thousands considering that over 4 million Italians had made their way to the U.S. by 1920, when immigration from the country started tapering off. The Italian Ministry of the Interior estimates that there are currently about 80 million individuals worldwide of Italian descent, with about 20 million in the U.S.
What To Know
The rule changes announced on May 23 not only restrict the descendant bloodline route to citizenship to parents and grandparents.
Rome also announced that Italian consulates will no longer process citizenship applications, which will instead be handled by the Italian government online. In-person interviews will be mandatory for applicants, forcing them to travel to Italy as part of the process. And finally, those who obtained Italian citizenship could lose it if they "don't engage" by paying taxes, voting, or renewing their passports.
These changes took effect immediately on May 23, though they do not affect the 60,000 applications which are currently pending review.
For the Italian government, the changes were a way to respond to criticism that the system was being abused by people "without any cultural or linguistic ties to the country," Tajani said. Applications have skyrocketed in the past few years, especially in South America, where Italian migrants flocked in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The changes were also a way to put an end to what critics have denounced as an inherent injustice within the Italian legal system, which allowed foreign nationals with distant Italian ancestry to seek citizenship while the children of immigrants born in the country are denied birthright citizenship and can only apply for it after reaching the age of 18.
But for Americans with Italian blood who were in the process of seeking Italian citizenship, the rule changes have caused "a lot of panic and heartbreak," Joseph Spinelle told Newsweek.
'Families Ripped Apart'
Spinelle, who was born in Chicago but now lives in Lecce, southern Italy, describes himself as "one of the lucky ones" who managed to obtain Italian citizenship before the country decided to change its rules.
In 2023, Spinelle and his wife "blew up their lives" in the U.S., selling their cars and their home and quitting their jobs to take the chance of a new life in Italy, where he was hoping to get citizenship.
"I moved out to get recognized for citizenship, went through that process, and stayed. My goal was always to stay in Italy. So we went out there, bought a house, and now we are restructuring it," he said.
One of the big reasons why Spinelle and his wife decided to stay in Italy was the 2024 election.
"We've been watching what's been happening in the U.S. and it's just been heartbreaking for us to kind of watch how our country is being torn apart," he said. "We wanted to live somewhere that just didn't have the strife. We wanted to get out in advance of all the toxicity, to be honest."
Spinelle has Italian family members on both sides, so he was recognized as a descendant of Italian nationals through his father as well as his mother. Seeking citizenship through "jure sanguinis," he obtained it within nine months, after moving to Italy and studying Italian for years.
Joseph Spinelle with his fourth grade class in Lecce. He teaches part-time in a public school in the southern Italian city.
Joseph Spinelle with his fourth grade class in Lecce. He teaches part-time in a public school in the southern Italian city.
Joseph Spinelle
Others were not as lucky as Spinelle.
"There are so many people that, because of the timing or whatever, don't know what to do now," he said.
"There are families being ripped apart, people who can stay in Italy, people who can't. There's just a lot of suffering that's happening as a result of this, and I feel like the people who are pushing the propaganda don't know or don't care."
Spinelle's family is among those that have been ripped apart by the rule changes. While he was recognized through his mother's bloodline, his mother has not been able to get an appointment at the Italian consulate despite trying for years—and now, she is shut out by the new requirements.
"Because her claim has not been filed yet, now we're looking at a situation where I was recognized for my mother, but my mother would not be eligible," he said. "So now we have these split families where I was recognized as a citizen, but my mother, my aunt, my brother, my sister, my nieces and nephews, which all came from the same bloodline, now are shut out."
Spinelle's sister was planning to retire in Italy, but now she will likely be unable to join her brother there.
"Literally families are getting ripped apart," he said.
Left, Joseph Spinelle, originally from Chicago, stands with his Italian passport. Right, Spinelle and his wife in Puglia, Italy.
Left, Joseph Spinelle, originally from Chicago, stands with his Italian passport. Right, Spinelle and his wife in Puglia, Italy.
Another family split by the rule changes is that of Jesse Hughes.
"My mom's paternal grandfather, Giovanni Raccio, was born in a small Italian town called Gioia Sannitica in the province of Caserta. His parents brought him and his sisters to the United in 1912, when he was only six years old," he told Newsweek.
"Although he assimilated well into American culture, he always dreamed of going back to 'the old country,' but never got the chance. Because he didn't naturalize until 1941, when my grandfather was still a minor, we learned that we were eligible for dual Italian citizenship by the jure sanguinis rule," he explained.
Hughes, his mother and her cousin all applied for citizenship back in 2022 and have been working on it since.
"We started studying the language, reading about Italian history, and watching Italian TV shows to learn more about the culture, in anticipation of being granted citizenship. I even memorized the Italian national anthem," he said.
Then the rule change was announced.
"My mom and her cousin are still eligible, but I am shut out because the link is my great-grandfather, not my grandfather," Hughes said.
"I have respect for the government's concerns that new citizens are taking advantage of the system to get pensions, or to buy up unreasonable amounts of property. But I wonder why parliament can't just make stricter rules regarding those issues, while continuing to allow people like me to gain our citizenship."
'Unjust and Unfair'
Marco Permunian, legal consultant and founder of Italian Citizenship Assistance, said that the change to the Italian citizenship law "was done in an unjust and unfair manner, affecting countless individuals who have been eligible to apply and had shown interest by taking significant actions to submit their citizenship application."
These changes, he said, were made "suddenly and with no grace period, leaving many people now ineligible and without the right to Italian citizenship because the public administration made it impossible to submit their application."
Several of Permunian's U.S. clients have expressed deep frustration and disappointment and are ready to fight the change in the court system, he said.
Basil Russo, national president of the Italian Sons and Daughters of America (ISDA), told Newsweek that applying for Italian citizenship has always been about more than just obtaining a passport.
"It's about heritage, identity, and justice for millions who have maintained a cultural and familial connection to Italy for generations," he said. "Closing the door on this process is a regrettable and mistargeted solution to a problem Italian Americans didn't create."
"Of the 4 million Italian immigrants who came to America between 1880 and 1920, the vast majority of their 18 million descendants are now their great grandchildren and their descendants," Russo said. "The new law will prohibit all of these individuals from applying for dual citizenship."
The rule change could deeply harm the relationship between descendants of Italian migrants to the U.S. and their ancestral homeland, Russo said.
"Italian Americans are extremely proud of their heritage, but this new law sends the uncomfortable message that our ancestral homeland is not equally proud to claim us," he said. "This law only serves to undermine that strong historical bond."
Jacopo Zamboni, managing partner at Henley & Partners, said that the change will likely bring a drop in applications.
"International law is clear on this: it is each country's sovereign right to decide who is entitled to citizenship," he told Newsweek. "We would nevertheless advocate for the introduction of further mitigating measures for those members of the diaspora who will be willing to show the willingness for reconnecting with the country socially but also economically."
What Happens Next
The only thing that those shut out by Italy's new citizenship rules can do at this point is to challenge the changes in court.
"We're gonna get the best lawyers that we can, we're gonna challenge the constitutionality of this, we're gonna challenge the implementation of this," Spinelle said.
"And even though you know this particular law is not on our side, when you weigh in everything in the actual constitution, the history of the laws, hopefully we'll get a judge who can see that this is unjust and then take that forward from there. That's our only option at this point."
While the Italian government said it was implementing these changes to ease the administrative burden on Italian consulates, the "exact opposite" is going to happen, Spinelle said, "because now everybody's going to challenge this."
"We've seen this in the data, there's an explosion in the court, everybody is filing. So they've done the exact opposite of what they set out to do," he added.
Hughes is holding hope that he will be able to obtain citizenship after all.
"I just want to work and live like a real Italian and do what I can to contribute to Italian society," he said.