Referendum on Italian Citizenship

In an era of increasingly harsh immigration rules around the globe, yesterday and today today Italy held a referendum on citizenship rules. Had it passed, it would have reduced the time to become a naturalized citizen to five years instead of the current ten years. As NPR reported: “Campaigners for the change said this would help second-generation Italians born in the country to non-European Union citizens. They can spend years, often long into adulthood, battling to get full citizenship rights from the only country they know to be their home.”

However, due to low voter turnout, the referendum has failed. The full NPR story is available here.

IE