Who Wants to Become Italian? A Study of Interest in Naturalisation among Foreign Migrants in Italy

Elisa Barbiano di Belgiojoso () and Livia Elisa Ortensi
Additional contact information
Elisa Barbiano di Belgiojoso: University of Milan-Bicocca
Livia Elisa Ortensi: Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna

European Journal of Population, 2022, vol. 38, issue 5, No 10, 1095-1118

Abstract: Abstract Since the early 1990s, Italy, along with other countries situated at Europe’s periphery, has become an attractive destination for migrants due to its lax regulation of migration and its job market. Despite its restrictive naturalisation laws, an increasing number of migrants are becoming eligible for Italian citizenship, which has led to a growing number of naturalisations in recent years. Existing research exploring naturalisation and its determinants has found migrants’ ability to attain citizenship strongly depends on their interest in becoming a member of the host state, requirements (as defined by the host country), and their capacity to overcome various constraints such as the costs involved in the naturalisation process. However, few empirical studies have focused on immigrants’ interest in naturalisation. To fill this gap, we analyse migrants’ interest in naturalisation and how it correlates to their eligibility. This paper relies on the most recent data on interest in naturalisation from the 2018 and 2019 waves of the Regional Observatory for Integration and Multiethnicity of Lombardy (Italy). The results show that not all migrants are interested in naturalisation after assessing its perceived costs and benefits, thus confirming an instrumental approach to citizenship. Interest is mostly related to the legislation and conditions in the country of origin. Moreover, the relationship between eligibility and interest is highly dependent on civil stratification, and eligibility is not directly associated with interest.

Keywords: Naturalisation; Interest; Eligibility; Italy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10680-022-09639-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:eurpop:v:38:y:2022:i:5:d:10.1007_s10680-022-09639-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10680

DOI: 10.1007/s10680-022-09639-y

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Population is currently edited by Helga A.G. de Valk

More articles in European Journal of Population from Springer, European Association for Population Studies
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().