The value of citizenship: migration and political agency amongst 'second generation' Italians in the UK

• In Event: Political Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Political Attitudes (Table 17)

Abstract

Abstract
Existing research has focused on struggles for citizenship among Italians of migrant descent, leaving under-explored how citizenship is enacted once acquired. Drawing on biographical research with Black and minoritised Italians — children of migrants who obtained Italian citizenship and later migrated to the UK — this article examines citizenship as both a framework of state power and a lived practice. Mobilising Abdelmalek Sayad’s notion of pensée d’état (state thought), citizenship is conceptualised not simply as a legal status but as a symbolic and cognitive mechanism that structures hierarchies of belonging. Findings reveal its ambivalent character: while naturalisation grants formal rights, minoritised Italians remain structurally and symbolically excluded from the Italian national community. In response, they redefine citizenship from below, valuing voting as a means of recognition and migration as an act of citizenship and self-determination.

Authors

• Michela Franceschelli, University College London

• Simone Varriale, Dept. of Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy, SSSH Loughborough University, UK