Abstract

This article explores both the histories of citizenship in Italy and scholarly understandings of that regime. From almost the creation of a unified Italy, citizenship has worked to facilitate the maintenance of ties by Italians abroad while simultaneously making naturalization by individuals with no claim to Italian descent a slow and difficult process. Whereas initial analyses of Italian citizenship often focused on its protective and inclusionary aspects, the last two decades have witnessed an explosion of interest in the exclusions entailed by Italy’s jus sanguinis regime. Indeed, studies of Italian citizenship have shifted from an emphasis on citizenship as a normative and legal category to its lived practice, particularly in the context of racialization and colonialism/post-colonialism. The analysis starts from the premise that citizenship has been not only «good to think with» but politically urgent to think with – for scholars, state officials seeking to forge an Italian nation-state, and contemporary activists challenging the exclusionary principle of jus sanguinis. The concluding section highlights productive new directions for citizenship studies, focusing on understandings of Italian citizenship as a diasporic practice that, through recognition of Italy’s multidirectional diasporas, open up the meanings and boundaries of Italianness