{"id":364,"date":"2026-05-09T17:56:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T16:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/sussex-centre-for-migration-research\/?p=364"},"modified":"2026-05-11T12:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:49:14","slug":"italians-on-the-field-foreigners-under-the-law-sport-and-the-politics-of-citizenship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/sussex-centre-for-migration-research\/2026\/05\/09\/italians-on-the-field-foreigners-under-the-law-sport-and-the-politics-of-citizenship\/","title":{"rendered":"Italians on the Field, Foreigners under the Law? Sport and the Politics of Citizenship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dr Giuseppe Scotto, University of the West of Scotland<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 14th<\/sup> , 2026, the Italian team reached for the first time in its history the semifinal of the World Baseball Classic, before being defeated by Venezuela.\u00a0A few days earlier, they had surprisingly defeated the USA<\/a>, finishing first in their pool. These results received widespread coverage, given that baseball is not among the most popular sports in Italy. Both the American and Italian press published several articles on the Italian team, paying particular attention to its composition.\u00a0Only three of the thirty members on the roster were born in Italy, while twenty-four were born in the US<\/a>, starting with captain Vinnie Pasquantino, a regular MLB player for the Kansas City Royals, born in Richmond, Virginia, but of Abruzzo origins.\u00a0 To express his fondness for Italian culture, Pasquantino\u00a0came up with the idea to celebrate each home run with an espresso shot in the dugout<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2026 World Baseball Classic is an international professional baseball tournament featuring 20 national baseball teams, with unique eligibility rules. The WBC allows players to represent countries not only on the basis of citizenship or birthplace, but also on “heritage,” such as the citizenship or birthplace of the player’s parents or if \u201cthe player presents documentary evidence satisfactory to WBCI that he would be granted citizenship or a passport in due course under the laws of the Federation Team\u2019s country or territory (\u2026), if he were to apply for such citizenship or passport\u201d<\/a>. In other words, a passport is not required. This explains why many US-born players represent other national teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Italy is a country with a long history of emigration. Between 1880 and 1920, more than 4 million Italians immigrated to the United States<\/a>. A second migration wave followed the end of World War II, lasting roughly until the 1970s, with approximately 426,488 Italians who immigrated to the United States from 1946 to 1970 (Tintori 2013)<\/a>. Today, according to the most recent census, Americans of Italian origin number 17.3 million, making them the fourth largest European ethnic group after Germans, Irish, and English<\/a>. However, Italian-American organisations like the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) predict that the community is actually larger, with figures closer to 26 million<\/a>. Given this, it is not surprising then that baseball is popular among Italian American communities, especially considering that one of the most iconic figures in the sport, Joe DiMaggio, was the son of Italian immigrants<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few weeks before the WBC, another bat-and-ball game made headlines in Italy’s sport newspapers and websites, as the Italian Cricket Team took part for the first time in the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, and surprisingly defeated a country with a strong cricketing tradition, such as Nepal<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Italy
Italian Men’s Cricket team T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier. Image credits ICC\/KNCB<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In this case as well, the team’s composition attracted attention. None of the 15 squad members was born in Italy, and only a few spoke Italian fluently<\/a>. Several players held Italian passports or qualified through Italian ancestry, often linked to migration to the UK, Australia, and South Africa, or through Italian spouses. The team also included so-called \u201cnew\u201d Italians, i.e., Italians whose families originate from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and migrated to Italy for economic reasons. This mix has been highlighted by the Italian media, with the leading newspaper Corriere della Sera <\/em>noting that the Italy of the past and the future intersect on the cricket pitch<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One reason behind this success is that, on December 7, 2002, the Italian Cricket Federation ratified the decision to recognize equal rights based on birthright for all its athletes, the first Italian sports body to do so<\/a>. A law passed in February 2016, allowed foreign minors legally resident in Italy “since at least the age of ten” to be registered with sports federations under the same procedures as Italian citizens<\/a>. These age and residency limits were further relaxed in 2023 with the implementation of part of Legislative Decree 36\/2021. Under this reform, foreign minors enrolled in school in Italy for at least one year, can register with sports federations under the same conditions as Italian citizens, even if their residence status is irregular<\/a>. However, these athletes are not allowed to compete with a National Team until they turn 18 and obtain citizenship (unless they were a minor when their parents obtained citizenship by naturalization). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, the success of diverse Italian teams in disciplines such as athletics and volleyball, has contributed to the debate on the reform of Italian citizenship law<\/a>. This law is  based on the principle of ius sanguinis <\/em>and has traditionally made it easier for descendants of Italian migrants living abroad to obtain citizenship than for children born or raised in Italy to foreign parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Young people of migrant descent have mobilized to demand recognition and access to citizenship rights in Italy,\u00a0in particular during the 2017 campaign to reform citizenship law<\/a>s, and ahead of the\u00a0June 2025 referendum, which aimed to reduce the residency requirement for naturalisation from ten years to five<\/a>. The referendum was declared void due to low turnout. Several athletes of foreign origin were often cited as emblematic cases, and\u00a0social media campaigns highlighted their stories to raise awareness<\/a>. However, some of these athletes have been the targets of everyday racism and more explicit racist abuse<\/a>, including the chants \u201cthere are no black Italians\u201d in Italian stadiums <\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The year 2025 also brought legislative changes restricting the scope of ius sanguinis <\/em>through Decree-Law No. 36\/2025<\/a>, limiting citizenship transmission to only two generations (except in cases that would result in statelessness), thus tightening access for people born abroad to Italian ancestors. At the time, the NIAF and the Italian American Congressional Delegation (IACD) expressed concern about the impact of these restrictions on Italian-American communities.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, while the Italian baseball team was making headlines, reigniting debate about who can be considered Italian, Italy\u2019s Constitutional Court (the country\u2019s top judiciary body) ruled in favour of the government and its controversial 2025 law<\/a>. At the time of writing, Italy\u2019s Supreme Court is considering a legal challenge presented by two US families arguing that the law should not be applied retroactively<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sportico reports<\/a> that some of the American-born players in the WBC Italy team have acknowledged that they are not yet Italian citizens, and captain Pasquantino would not be eligible of an Italian passport under the revised citizenship law. But is this a real contradiction?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parallel trajectories of Italy’s baseball and cricket teams suggest that, while sporting bodies are increasingly willing to embrace a plural, transnational understanding of Italianit\u00e0<\/em> (Italianness), the Italian state narrows formal pathways to citizenship for both migrant-descended and diasporic Italians. As Gijsbert Oonk argues<\/a>, the \u201cquestion: who may represent the country [in sport]? cannot be easily answered. Categories of belonging are blurred, and athletes, sports federations, institutions, states, and audiences constantly negotiate them.\u201d While the World Baseball Classic (WBC) and the Italian Cricket Federation have have relaxed eligibility rules to broaden participation and talent pools, the Italian government has tightened access to citizenship, partly in response to administrative pressures as courts and consulates are overwhelmed with applications. At present, there is little political consensus in favour of liberalising citizenship laws. However, as Italy\u2019s demographic composition evolves and younger generations grow more accustomed to diversity, the time has come for a deeper reflection on how citizenship law should reflect multiple forms of national belonging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Giuseppe Scotto, University of the West of Scotland On March 14th , 2026, the Italian team reached for the first time in its history the semifinal of the World Baseball Classic, before being defeated by Venezuela.\u00a0A few days earlier,…<\/span><\/p>\n

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