Political Report Card Logo * What we do * Who we are * Newsletters * Book * Support us * fb * tw * ig Near Support us Menu backwards ## Pd-M5s give citizenship income to 3.6 million non-EU citizens? by Editorial Staff | 03 December 2019 ![\\"Report card](\\"\\") Giorgia Meloni The declaration «[Pd and M5s] now make it even easier for 3.6 million non-EU citizens in Italy apply for Citizenship Income" Source: Facebook | December 1, 2019 facebook twitter whatsapp email ![\\"Handle\\"](\\"\\") Handle Brief verdict Pinocchio going On December 1, the leader of Fratelli d'Italia Giorgia Meloni wrote about Facebook and Twitter that Pd and M5s «now make it even easier to 3.6 millions of non-EU citizens in Italy apply for citizenship income". On both social networks, Meloni also attached a screenshot of an article of 30 November published in the newspaper, entitled: «Here is the "new" income of citizenship: green light for disbursement for 3.6 million foreigners". But really 3.6 million foreigners are about to receive the income of citizenship? What news is Meloni talking about? We checked and the leader of the Brothers of Italy is also wrong, both in numbers and in substance whether there is a grain of truth in his statement. How many non-EU citizens They already receive citizenship income According to the most up-to-date data of the INPS Statistical Observatory on the RdC, as of 8 October 2019 - more data updated – of the 982 thousand households receiving the RdC, 10 percent were made up of family units (approximately 98,200 units therefore) made up of foreigners. In particular by 3 percent of European Union citizens, by 6 percent of non-EU citizens and by 1 percent of family members of the previous categories. According to the latest findings INPS quarterly report, updated to 4 September 2019, individuals non-EU citizens - with a regular EU residence permit - who received the income or citizenship pension were almost 172 thousand, 7.3 percent out of the total of over 2 million and 348 thousand recipients. The July block An INPS circular dated July 5th announced the suspension of the investigation «of all applications submitted starting from the month of April 2019 by non-EU applicants" to obtain the income of citizenship. To date, non-EU foreigners - i.e. coming from Countries not members of the European Union – who receive the income (or pension) of citizenship are therefore only those who have managed to present the application to INPS in March 2019 (the first month in which the required practices). But why was there this suspension? At the end of March 2019 - when the first applications to INPS had already arrived - the law of conversion of the decree that introduced the citizen's income had imposed (article 1, paragraph 2-bis) new criteria for non-EU citizens who they wanted to get the subsidy. From that date, in fact, foreigners did not Europeans had to demonstrate their financial and income situation in Country of origin, by delivering «a certification from the foreign authority competent, translated into Italian and legalized by the consular authority Italian". The new condition, however, did not apply to political refugees to «citizens of states not belonging to the European Union in which it is located objectively impossible to acquire the certifications". The identification of these countries had been delegated (art. 2, co. 1-ter of the law of conversion) to an implementing decree of the Minister of Labor and Politics Social, in agreement with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation international. The decree arrived at the end of November 2019 – but with a different content than previously expected, as we will see later little – and it is precisely this text that according to Meloni would facilitate reception of the RdC for 3.6 million non-EU citizens. Indeed, as it suggests screenshot posted by the leader of the Brothers of Italy, the decree would give even "the green light for the provision" of the subsidy for these people. Let's first see what this decree provides, and then move on to the numbers. The new decree Instead of drawing up a list with the «non-member States to the European Union in which it is objectively impossible to acquire the certifications" to obtain the RdC, the Ministry of Labor and that of In drafting the decree, foreign countries opted to indicate a list of Countries whose citizens, to obtain the RdC, «are required to produce the appropriate certification" regarding the attestation of the value of the real estate assets owned abroad, declared for ISEE purposes. There was in short, an inversion: the states in which it is impossible are no longer indicated obtain the required documents but those where it is mandatory. The states in issue are 19 in total: Bhutan, South Korea, Fiji, Japan, Hong Kong, Iceland, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Malaysia, New Zealand, Qatar, Rwanda, San Marino, Saint Lucia, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan and Tonga. «The citizens of the States or territories not included in the attached list are not required to produce any further certification, beyond that ordinarily provided for access to citizenship income and pension citizenship", explains the decree. The documentation they will have to present i citizens of the States not exempted from the text - therefore the 19 on the list - will be therefore that relating to real estate assets. They remain for all conditions linked to an ISEE of less than 9,360 euros per year and to assets financial amount not exceeding 6,000 euros. But it follows from this provision so that it will be easier for 3.6 million non-EU citizens to obtain the RdC? The answer is no, for at least two reasons. The constraint of 10 years of residence The figure "3.6 million" refers to the number of non-EU residents in Italy on 1 January 2019, which according to Istat were actually a little more more, i.e. 3.7 million (out of a total of over 5.2 million foreigners). But not everyone can access the RdC: to obtain the measure you need to «resided in Italy for at least 10 years, of which the last 2 are underway continuous". And ten years ago, on January 1, 2009, the residents there were fewer non-EU citizens in our country than today. In total, according to Istat, almost 2 million 760 thousand people did not come from European countries. To this one figure – assuming that all of these remained in Italy for ten years – approximately 61,200 units would in turn be subtracted, according to the estimate made by the Association for Legal Studies on Immigration (Asgi) as far as concerns the number of non-EU citizens coming from the 19 non-exempt countries by the decree. Data on absolute poverty From the 3.6 million cited by Meloni, This leaves around 2.7 million. But that doesn't mean all of these can access citizenship income or pension. It is not in fact it is correct to look at the overall population figure non-EU, but we must look in particular at the subset of residents living in absolute poverty, who are the recipients of measures such as citizenship income. To date, the incidence of absolute poverty it affects 30.3 percent of foreign residents, according to most surveys updated by Istat, which however does not provide disaggregated data for the non-EU citizens. We therefore do not know how many non-EU citizens live in condition of absolute poverty in Italy. However, we know that over a million 575 thousand foreigners (30.3 percent of 5.2 million) are found in this area condition. Also the Technical Report to the Legislative Decree no. 4 of 2018, which has introduced the RdC, it did not distinguish between European and non-Italians non-EU citizens in estimating how many foreigners could have benefited of the citizen's income considering the ten-year constraint residence. According to the calculations contained in the Technical Report, in any case, potentially beneficiary families composed of foreigners only (counting both non-EU citizens and those from EU member states) were in total about 154 thousand, a much lower number than that indicated by Meloni (who however speaks specifically of "non-EU" individuals, who are a subset of foreigners). The verdict According to Giorgia Meloni, a new decree from the Pd-M5s government would make it "even easier" to reach 3.6 million non-EU citizens in Italy" to "request the income of citizenship". The leader of the Brothers of Italy also published one screenshot of an article in the newspaper, according to which the "green light for provision for 3.6 million foreigners". We checked and things are not like that. Firstly, the implementing decree approved by Ministries of Labor and Foreign Affairs does not make the request "even easier". of the RdC, but if anything it makes it possible again, since the exam of applications for non-EU citizens had been blocked since July 2019. It is It is true, however, that the new government has made a sort of U-turn, compared to the previous one, drawing up a list of 19 non-EU nationalities obliged to present certificates on their real estate assets in the countries of origin. All other non-EU citizens (the majority) are exempt from this condition. However, the "exempted" people are not 3.6 million, as they say Meloni and Il Giornale, but potentially and to the maximum – although we cannot know the precise numbers on non-EU citizens - at least four times less. In conclusion, Meloni deserves a “Pinocchio andante”. * Immigration * 5 Star Movement * Democratic Party * Citizenship income ## SUPPORT REPORT CARD Politics without small talk. 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Pd and M5s now make it even easier for 36 million nonEU citizens in Italy to apply for Citizenship Income