Sabrina Crawford among those refused because of rule change, which now also affects children of immigrants born in Italy
In 2025, after a long and arduous journey in her attempts to gain Italian citizenship, including a pivotal genealogical research trip to a village in Calabria, US-born Sabrina Crawford was hoping to fulfil her lifelong dream of building a life in Italy as she edged towards the final hurdle of the bureaucratic process.
But her plans were scuppered when Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government enacted a law stopping access to Italian citizenship via distant ancestry. Since May last year, only those with a parent or grandparent who was an Italian citizen at birth, and who did not take on dual nationality, are eligible to apply.
Crawford, from the San Francisco Bay area, was waiting for one crucial document proving that her Italian great-grandfather had not become a US citizen before submitting her application when the new rules were announced out of the blue.
“It was as if the sky collapsed,” she said. “This horrible news really upended all of my plans, all of my hopes, all of my goals. It broke my heart.”
