Acquisition of Citizenship: Desire and Reality among Foreigners in Italy

Ginevra Di Giorgio, Italian National Institute of Statistics
Francesca Dota, Italian National Institute of Statistics
Rottino Fabio Massimo, Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT)
Daniele Spizzichino , Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT)

In Italy, according to the 2011 Population Census, the amount of foreign residents was over 4 million, about 7% of the resident population. The share of those who had already acquired Italian citizenship before 2011 Population Census amounted to around 670 thousand individuals. From 2011 to 2017, the citizenship acquisitions have been around 800 thousand. The objective of this work is to understand the correspondence between the desire to acquire Italian citizenship and the actual acquisition and to outline the main individual and family characteristics of the foreigners that acquire or not the Italian citizenship. The only source that collects foreigners acquisition desire is the sample survey on Social Condition and Integration of Foreign Citizens (SCIF) carried out by Istat in 2011-2012. On an amount of about 20,000 foreign citizens interviewed, the share of those who intend to acquire Italian citizenship is 70%. Administrative data on citizenship acquisitions in 2011-2017 period provide information referred to the amount of foreigners who become Italian citizens. Through the linkage between the survey data (SCIF) and the administrative data on Italians by acquisition it is possible to analyze both the desire and the actual achievements. Furthermore, it is possible a focus on the socio-demographic and migratory background of foreign citizens who acquire Italian citizenship. From the first results, among foreigners interviewed who wanted to become Italian citizens, in the following 6 years, just over 20% saw their expectations realized.

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 Presented in Session P3. Poster Session Migration, Economics, Environment, Methods, History and Policy