Seconde generazioni e cittadinanza: sentirsi e diventare italiani

The role played by citizenship in immigrants’ inclusion processes in destination countries is fundamental for democratic coexistence. The growing presence of immigrant children in Italy raises central questions on the issues of legal recognition and national identification. The article aims to analyze legal and identity dimensions of citizenship and their association. On one hand, we carried out a longitudinal analysis using data on acquisitions of Italian citizenship and estimations of naturalized Italian residents. On the other hand, through the survey Integration of Second Generations (Istat), we analyzed the determinants of national identification of immigrants’ young children in Italy. Our results indicate that the increasing presence of immigrant children points out the limitations and tensions inherent in the concept of citizenship.