We are pleased to announce the publication of a new article by Melissa Blanchard, Co-PI of the ACE project, and Thales Speroni, postdoctoral researcher on the ACE project, in the Journal of International Migration and Integration.
Blanchard, M., & Speroni, T. (2026). From roots to routes (and back)? Unexpected narratives of Italian ancestral citizenship acquisition. Journal of International Migration and Integration. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-026-01427-5
Drawing on multisite ethnographic fieldwork and 23 in-depth interviews conducted between October 2023 and April 2025 with Brazilians of Italian descent who acquired Italian citizenship and migrated to Italy, Spain or the United Kingdom, this article examines how citizenship acquisition, ancestry and migration intersect in individual biographies.
The analysis reads these narratives alongside Italian citizenship legislation and parliamentary debates on jus sanguinis. Until the reform enacted in March 2025, Italian law allowed descendants of emigrants to claim citizenship without generational limits, implicitly assuming a linear sequence running from ancestry to citizenship and, possibly, return migration to the ancestral homeland. Blanchard and Speroni identify three biographical configurations — ancestry first, citizenship first, and migration first — that depart from this expectation.
They argue that ancestry (understood by participants as an emotional attachment to family roots rather than as mere legal filiation), citizenship and migration operate as an interconnected triangle rather than as a straightforward progression. Situating these trajectories against the 2025 reform, which limits transmission to two generations and makes territorial links to Italy a condition of belonging, the article shows that the mismatch between lived trajectories and legal expectation illuminates not only what citizenship means to individuals, but also how the state conceives its own membership.
Access the full text here: https://rdcu.be/fzZXk
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Thales Speroni (August 15, 2026). New Publication by Melissa Blanchard and Thales Speroni. Ancestral Citizenship Project. Retrieved September 13, 2026 from https://ace.hypotheses.org/1730