Imagine building a life abroad, raising children in a new country, only to discover your kids no longer have the right to their parents' nationality. That's the reality millions of Italians now face thanks to a seismic legal shift approved in 2025.
Italy just ended "jus sanguinis," the 160-year-old principle of citizenship by bloodline. Under the new rules, only people with a parent or grandparent born in Italy can claim citizenship, and only if that relative held exclusively Italian nationality when the child was born or died. It's a dramatic reversal for a nation whose diaspora shaped the modern world.
The change came through an emergency decree from Giorgia Meloni's government, challenged in the Constitutional Court but ultimately approved. For those considering the leap into expat life, the timing stings. The promise of working from anywhere, of raising a global family while maintaining your roots, just got more complicated.
Why Italy is pulling back on its diaspora
Italy, like Ireland, lost vast numbers of people to poverty and economic hardship in the 19th and 20th centuries. Between 1861 and 1918 alone, 16 million Italian citizens left to build lives elsewhere. The exodus never really stopped. In the decade from 2014 to 2024, the diaspora grew by nearly two million people, from 4.6 million to 6.4 million globally.
Supporters of the new rules argue that these overseas Italians don't pay Italian taxes or contribute to local communities. They point to Italy's aging population and shrinking villages desperate for younger residents. Rural towns have launched aggressive campaigns to attract new inhabitants, offering houses for a euro and even paying people to move in. The logic is local: prioritize Italians living in Italy.
But critics see hypocrisy. Italy readily grants citizenship when it's politically useful, like boosting Olympic teams or flattering foreign leaders. And obtaining Italian citizenship abroad is already a grueling, expensive process involving extensive paperwork and genealogical proof. In Argentina alone, 30,000 people claimed Italian citizenship in 2024, a 50% increase year-on-year, proving demand hasn't dried up.
What this means for travelers and expats
For digital nomads and remote workers considering long-term moves to Europe, this shifts the calculation. Your children's legal status, passport options, and sense of belonging just became messier. Professor Corrado Caruso, one of the lawyers who challenged the law, told CNN he had hoped the Constitutional Court would strike it down on constitutional grounds. They didn't.
The new citizenship rules align Italy with other European nations managing large diasporas, but the emotional impact is harder to quantify. People who grew up identifying as Italian, who traced their heritage back through generations, now face bureaucratic barriers their parents never did. Identity isn't just a legal matter; it's personal.
Whether this change actually brings back Italians who left or discourages potential returnees remains unclear. Ghost villages might finally reverse their decline, or the law might simply push diaspora communities further away. One thing's certain: if you're carrying Italian heritage and planning to start a family abroad, now is the moment to understand where your citizenship actually stands.
