Italy Strips Millions of Diaspora of Citizenship Rights

Italy’s Constitutional Court has upheld a 2025 law ending 160 years of citizenship by descent, stripping tens of millions of Italian descendants worldwide of their right to an EU passport. Here’s what happened, who is affected, and what options remain.

The Dream of Returning to Italy Just Got Much Harder for Millions

For generations, the ability to claim Italian citizenship through ancestral descent — a legal tradition stretching back to the founding of the Italian state in 1865 — was one of the most powerful travel and immigration tools available to the global Italian diaspora. It offered not just a passport, but the right to live, work, travel, and build a life freely across all 27 nations of the European Union.

That dream has now been dramatically curtailed.

In a landmark and deeply controversial ruling, Italy’s Constitutional Court confirmed in March 2026 that it would uphold the government’s 2025 law restricting citizenship by descent — a decision that effectively closes the door on most Italians beyond the second generation, regardless of how deeply their families maintained their Italian identity, language, and traditions abroad (CNN, March 2026).

The ripple effects of this ruling are being felt across three continents — and for a specific group of aspiring citizens, the consequences are not abstract. They are devastatingly personal.

160 Years of Legal Tradition, Overturned by Emergency Decree

To understand why this ruling has provoked such global outrage, it helps to understand just how foundational the principle of ius sanguinis — citizenship by blood — was to the Italian legal identity.

From the very first page of Italy’s civil code, published in 1865, the country declared that a child born to an Italian citizen was automatically an Italian citizen. This principle was reinforced in the citizenship law of 1912, confirmed again in 1992, and used by generations of Italians who emigrated — primarily between 1861 and 1918, when an estimated 16 million citizens left for a better life in the Americas, Australia, and beyond — to maintain their national identity across borders (CNN, March 2026).

The system worked, imperfectly but reliably, for over a century. Then came the Tajani Decree.

On March 28, 2025, the Italian government issued an emergency decree — officially Law 74/2025, sponsored by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani — that fundamentally rewrote the rules. The new law states that only those with a parent or grandparent born in Italy (or meeting specific residency and exclusive-citizenship conditions at birth) can be recognized as Italian citizens by descent (IB Times Australia, March 2026).

Critically, the decree also effectively outlaws dual citizenship for the diaspora in most cases — the qualifying parent or grandparent must have held exclusively Italian citizenship at the time of their descendant’s birth, ruling out the vast majority of emigrants who naturalized in their adopted countries while raising Italian-born children.

There was no grace period. No transition provision. No accommodation for those already in the process.

Who Is Affected: 80 Million People Worldwide

The scale of this ruling is staggering. An estimated 80 million people globally claim Italian descent, with the largest populations concentrated in Brazil (32 million), Argentina (25 million), and the United States (20 million) (IB Times Australia, March 2026).

For the vast majority — those tracing their ancestry three, four, or five generations back to Italian emigrants of the late 19th and early 20th centuries — the 2025 law and the 2026 Constitutional Court ruling represent a permanent closure. The path to EU citizenship, free movement, and Italian identity recognition that their grandparents and great-grandparents believed they were preserving for their descendants no longer legally exists.

The court’s decision was described by legal observers as devastating. As professor Corrado Caruso, one of the lawyers who challenged the law, told CNN: “It was an extremely clear, harsh intervention. I had a hope that it would be judged in breach of some constitutional points, but that wasn’t recognized by the court.” (CNN, March 2026).

The People Left Stranded: Real Lives, Real Consequences

For some, the ruling is not a statistical abstraction. It is the collapse of a life plan already set in motion.

CNN documented the case of Kellen Matwick, an American who spent two years gathering genealogical documentation, then relocated his entire family to Turin in August 2024 to begin the citizenship recognition process — only for the Tajani Decree to be issued months after their arrival (CNN, March 2026).

The Matwick family’s situation illustrates the cruelty of the law’s implementation. Kellen’s great-grandfather had naturalized in the United States while his daughter was still a minor — triggering what the law calls the “minor issue,” a clause that breaks the chain of descent. The family attended their citizenship appointment anyway. They were rejected.

With their furniture shipped across the Atlantic, their children enrolled in Italian schools, and a four-year apartment lease signed as part of the process, returning to America was not financially viable. They remain in Turin — unable to work legally in Italy as residents, unable to access the public healthcare system, and unable to travel back to visit family in the United States without risking being barred re-entry to the EU.

Their court date is scheduled for January 2027 (CNN, March 2026).

The Matwicks are not alone. Thousands of families who uprooted their lives based on established legal precedent now find themselves in similar legal limbo — with no clear resolution in sight.

Why the Government Did It: Consular Backlogs and “Passport Tourism”

The Italian government’s stated rationale for the Tajani Decree centers on administrative necessity. The citizenship-by-descent application system had become overwhelmed, with consular backlogs extending to decades in some South American countries. Officials argued that the existing system had become vulnerable to abuse — enabling what critics called “passport tourism,” where individuals with only the most tenuous ancestral connection to Italy sought EU travel rights purely for the mobility benefits (IB Times Australia, March 2026).

Supporters of the law argue that restricting eligibility to two generations is a reasonable modernization — aligning Italy’s citizenship rules more closely with those of other EU member states. Critics counter that the law was implemented with reckless disregard for those already in process, and that the timing — against a backdrop of Italy’s record-low birth rate of 1.14 children per woman in 2025, the lowest in the EU — is economically self-defeating. One in eight births in Italy in 2025 was to a foreign national (CNN, April 2026).

The Legal Battle Continues: One Last Hope

While the Constitutional Court ruling was a severe blow, it did not entirely close all legal avenues.

Italy’s Supreme Court — the Corte di Cassazione — separately began evaluating three cases of citizenship by descent that had been rejected at trial and appeal. The attorney for the American plaintiffs, Marco Mellone, explicitly asked the Cassazione to rule on whether citizenship is a permanent right acquired at birth — a framing that, if adopted, could give lower courts grounds to disregard the 2025 restrictions entirely (CNN, April 2026).

Mellone expressed confidence in the outcome, noting that the Cassazione has intervened in citizenship law only twice in the 21st century, and each time retroactively re-established citizenship for those who had lost it involuntarily. If the two top courts — the Constitutional Court and the Cassazione — issue conflicting rulings, those seeking citizenship could be forced to pursue individual lawsuits against the Italian government. The legal landscape remains fluid.

Regional courts across Italy are already reaching opposite conclusions on the same legal questions: some granting citizenship, some rejecting outright, many suspending decisions pending higher-court guidance.

What Options Remain for Those Affected

For the millions now ineligible for citizenship by descent, the remaining pathways include:

• Residency-based naturalization: Requires ten continuous years of legal residence in Italy, though this may be reduced under specific circumstances.
• Citizenship by marriage: Available after two years of residence following marriage to an Italian citizen.
• Reacquisition: Available until December 31, 2027 for certain pre-1992 losses of citizenship.
• Legal challenge: Pursuing individual court cases through Italian civil courts, though success rates and timelines are highly uncertain given the current judicial landscape.

Legal experts universally advise anyone with any potential Italian ancestry to immediately review their genealogical records to determine whether they qualify under the narrower two-generation rule before pursuing any of the more complex avenues (IB Times Australia, March 2026).

The Broader Impact on Italy’s Tourism and Travel Appeal

The citizenship ruling carries indirect consequences for Italy’s travel economy as well. For decades, the prospect of reclaiming Italian citizenship drew wealthy diaspora members — particularly from the US, Brazil, and Argentina — to spend extended periods in Italy, rent long-term accommodation, enroll children in schools, hire local lawyers and researchers, and invest in local communities during the lengthy application process.

That pipeline of motivated, high-spending “citizenship tourists” has been significantly narrowed. The loss extends beyond individual family dreams to a concrete reduction in a form of immigration and investment that Italy — with its shrinking and ageing population — arguably cannot afford to discourage.

FAQ: Italy Citizenship Ruling 2026

Q: What did Italy’s Constitutional Court rule in 2026 regarding citizenship?
A: The court upheld Law 74/2025 (the Tajani Decree), confirming that only those with a parent or grandparent born in Italy can claim Italian citizenship by descent. The ruling ends 160 years of the broader ius sanguinis tradition.

Q: How many people are affected by Italy’s new citizenship law?
A: An estimated 80 million people worldwide claim Italian descent. The large majority — those tracing ancestry three or more generations back — are now ineligible under the new rules.

Q: Can I still apply for Italian citizenship if my great-grandparents were Italian?
A: Generally no, under the 2025 law. Eligibility is now limited to those with a parent or grandparent born in Italy under specific conditions. Legal advice is strongly recommended to assess individual cases.

Q: Is there any legal recourse against Italy’s citizenship restrictions?
A: Yes, though uncertain. Italy’s Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione) is separately evaluating whether citizenship is a right acquired at birth — a ruling that could open lower courts to challenge the 2025 law. Individual legal challenges through Italian civil courts remain an option.

Q: What alternatives exist for those denied Italian citizenship by descent?
A: Residency-based naturalization (10 years), citizenship by marriage (2 years after marriage), reacquisition for certain pre-1992 cases (deadline December 31, 2027), or individual court action.