FACT CHECK: Does Italy grant more citizenships than any other EU country?
As Italy prepares to vote on June 8-9th in a referendum on easing rules on applying for citizenship through naturalisation, or residency, the main argument against the proposal remains that it would make things too 'easy' for applicants.
The strongest opposition to changing the rules comes from the government itself, with senior ministers of the ruling hard-right parties calling for supporters to abstain from voting, and insisting that making it easier for long-term residents to become Italian nationals would be 'dangerous'.
According to Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-immigrant League party, cutting the wait time to apply from ten years down to five would mean "indiscriminately extending" the granting of citizenship.
Italy is already 'the first European country in terms of granting citizenship every year,' he claimed at a press conference on May 19th.
But data shows us that this is not strictly true, particularly when it comes to applications via the residency route.
Italy has three main routes for citizenship applications: ancestry, residency, and marriage. Ancestry has long been the most commonly-taken route, followed by residency.
According to the most recent statistics available from Eurostat, in 2023 Italy granted citizenship to some 214,000 residents. Spain meanwhile approved 240,000 requests from residents in the same year.
In 2022, Italy was actually the European country with the highest number of applications for citizenship via residency granted, while in 2021 it ranked fourth, behind Spain, France and Germany.
The above graph shows the rate of annual citizenship applications granted by Spain (in green) compared to Italy (in pink). Source: Eurostat
The overall comparison shows that, between 2014 and 2023, Italy ranked first in the EU for citizenship for five years out of ten, not 'every year,' as Salvini claims.
Going further back, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Italy granted citizenship at a much lower rate.
And when we look at the numbers of new citizens via residency in each country as a percentage of the population, Italy drops further down the rankings.
For example, in 2023 Italy granted citizenship to 3.6 foreign nationals per thousand residents, the fifth highest number behind Luxembourg, Sweden, Spain and Belgium.
If the referendum passes, estimates suggest some 1.4 million people would be immediately eligible to apply for citizenship.
However, the rules on eligibility would otherwise remain unchanged, meaning this would be unlikely to increase the number of applicants in the long term.
And Italy is already set to see a sharp decline in the total number of applications for citizenship filed and granted in future.
By far the largest proportion of all new Italian citizenship applications are made via ancestry, often by descendants of Italians who moved abroad several generations ago.
But at the end of March 2023, the number of people eligible to apply via ancestry was slashed dramatically in reforms pushed through by the government.
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3 days ago
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FACT CHECK: Does Italy grant more citizenships than any other EU country?
As Italy prepares to vote on June 8-9th in a referendum on easing rules on applying for citizenship through naturalisation, or residency, the main argument against the proposal remains that it would make things too 'easy' for applicants. The strongest opposition to changing the rules comes from the government itself, with senior ministers of the ruling hard-right parties calling for supporters to abstain from voting, and insisting that making it easier for long-term residents to become Italian nationals would be 'dangerous'. According to Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-immigrant League party, cutting the wait time to apply from ten years down to five would mean "indiscriminately extending" the granting of citizenship. Italy is already 'the first European country in terms of granting citizenship every year,' he claimed at a press conference on May 19th. But data shows us that this is not strictly true, particularly when it comes to applications via the residency route. Italy has three main routes for citizenship applications: ancestry, residency, and marriage. Ancestry has long been the most commonly-taken route, followed by residency. According to the most recent statistics available from Eurostat, in 2023 Italy granted citizenship to some 214,000 residents. Spain meanwhile approved 240,000 requests from residents in the same year. In 2022, Italy was actually the European country with the highest number of applications for citizenship via residency granted, while in 2021 it ranked fourth, behind Spain, France and Germany. The above graph shows the rate of annual citizenship applications granted by Spain (in green) compared to Italy (in pink). Source: Eurostat The overall comparison shows that, between 2014 and 2023, Italy ranked first in the EU for citizenship for five years out of ten, not 'every year,' as Salvini claims. Going further back, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Italy granted citizenship at a much lower rate. And when we look at the numbers of new citizens via residency in each country as a percentage of the population, Italy drops further down the rankings. For example, in 2023 Italy granted citizenship to 3.6 foreign nationals per thousand residents, the fifth highest number behind Luxembourg, Sweden, Spain and Belgium. If the referendum passes, estimates suggest some 1.4 million people would be immediately eligible to apply for citizenship. However, the rules on eligibility would otherwise remain unchanged, meaning this would be unlikely to increase the number of applicants in the long term. And Italy is already set to see a sharp decline in the total number of applications for citizenship filed and granted in future. By far the largest proportion of all new Italian citizenship applications are made via ancestry, often by descendants of Italians who moved abroad several generations ago. But at the end of March 2023, the number of people eligible to apply via ancestry was slashed dramatically in reforms pushed through by the government.
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