Rome: For decades, Australians with Italian heritage – some named after a nonna they never met, others raised on Sunday sugo and stories of the old country – have proudly clung to the idea of becoming citizens.
For many, it was more than nostalgia. It meant opportunity – to live, work and travel freely across Europe. But that door, for thousands, has now slammed shut.
Italian senator Francesco Giacobbe, from Sydney, in his office in Rome this week. Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
Rome had long allowed direct descendants of citizens who lived in Italy as far back as 1861 to apply for a passport. But Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government, elected in 2022 on a platform of national pride and conservative revivalism, has redrawn the boundaries of who gets to belong.
In March, Meloni’s cabinet issued an emergency decree that dramatically tightened eligibility and this week, the law was formally approved by parliament. The change restricts automatic citizenship rights to only those with at least one parent or grandparent born in Italy.
The impact has been sharply felt in Australia, where almost 180,000 people are officially registered as Italian citizens and tens of thousands more claim Italian ancestry, particularly from post-World War II migration.
Leaders in the Italian Australian community warn that the changes risk alienating many of those who
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