Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses how Chileans of Italian descent use the Italian citizenship they "inherit" from their ancestors, what it means to them and the mobility it engenders. It then compares it with European migration policies and with the representations of European identity and borders.

Paper long abstract:

Building on an ethnographic research I carried out in Santiago de Chile and in Trentino (Italy) with Chileans of Italian descent, this paper analyses how they use the Italian citizenship they "inherit" from their ancestors, what it means to them and the mobility it engenders. In a second phase, the paper compares these practices to Italian and European migration policies. Thanks to the principle of jus sanguinis, Italian law allows emigrants' descendants to maintain or acquire citizenship without generation limits. In addition, regional return programmes support candidates to "homecoming": these two legal measures generate massive immigration in Italy. This paper shows that emigrants' descendants conceive Italian citizenship as an asset giving access to a wide range of opportunities at the European level (professional, training, mobility and medical care opportunities inside the Schengen space). But if Italian citizenship has a strong legal meaning, it has a low cultural intensity. It does not evoke a cultural community with which the respondents identify: they conceive themselves as Chilean nationals. The separation between citizenship, nationality and belonging, which I observed, contrasts with the rhetoric of the Italian policies, assimilating citizenship and identity. To conclude, I argue that the creation of new Italian citizens through jus sanguinis, introduces a value gap between the right to return and the right to enter the European Union, fostering "chosen immigration" as a counterpoint to the European immigration policy of closed borders. This brings me to question the representations of European identity and borders in delocalized societies.