Ius sanguinis o ius vocis? Politiche, memorie e archivi orali delle migrazioni tra Italia e Brasile, 1970-2025

This article examines the changing meanings of Italian citizenship and memory in relation to migration between Italy and Brazil from the 1970s to 2025. Starting from the controversial 2025 reform that restricts ius sanguinis citizenship for descendants of Italian emigrants, Casellato analyzes the historical and cultural background of Italian migration policies, focusing on Veneto—a region deeply marked by emigration. He traces how regional and national measures evolved from efforts to eliminate emigration in the 1970s to the later celebration of “Veneti in the world” as cultural and economic ambassadors. The study highlights the contrasting fates of oral archives on Italian emigration. While in Italy, documentation centers such as the ADREV (Archivio di Documentazione e Ricerca sull’Emigrazione Veneta) have been dispersed or neglected, in southern Brazil—especially in Caxias do Sul—oral memory collections remain well preserved, catalogued, and accessible. The article argues that this asymmetry in archival care reflects broader divergences in how Italy and Brazil have valued the legacy of migration. Casellato also reconstructs emotional and symbolic exchanges between Italy and Brazil through personal testimonies, letters, and media narratives that reveal the coexistence of pride, nostalgia, and disillusionment among Italo-Brazilians seeking recognition. In conclusion, he calls for renewed forms of “archival diplomacy” and “bottom-up cultural diplomacy” to reconnect dispersed oral sources across the Atlantic. Such digital and collaborative archival practices, he argues, could transform historical memory into an inclusive “laboratory of citizenship,” moving from the principle of ius sanguinis (citizenship by blood) toward a more participatory ius vocis—citizenship through voice and shared narrative.