Traditional public performances and their link to ethnicity and citizenship. A comparison between Italy and Australia

In this paper we analyse political negotiations about the participation or exclusion of migrants to a traditional historical procession -  the ‘Corteggio storico’- held in the Italian city of Prato (Tuscany-Italy). In last years Prato has witnessed massive immigration, especially from Chinese community. Traditional rites and ethnicity are closely linked and we take the ethnographic case of the Corteggio storico as an emblematic example of the Italian understanding of ethnicity, which doesn’t include the notion of mixity. Understandings of ethnicity can vary significantly among different countries: national citizenship laws provide a window onto the tangle terrain of identity and ethnic politics and national histories. We compare citizenship law in Italy and Australia and discuss its practical implications in community life and public initiatives. Nation-states emerging from settler colonies like Australia tend to confer citizenship by ius soli. With its history of ‘populate or perish’, Australian governments offered incentives to preferred migrants to settle permanently. Australia has a multicultural rhetorics and practices and a culturalist and relatively celebratory approach to concepts of the second generation and ethnicity. Australia’s approach to citizenship and ethnicity contrasts sharply with nation-states like Italy, which typically have not had long experience with immigration. Citizenship in Italy is defined by ius sanguinis and is conferred only when a person can prove ten years residence and demonstrate a medium-high income. In contrast to Australia, Italy is home to significant numbers of ‘illegal’ immigrants with no rights even to apply for citizenship. In addition, the concept of the second generation is highly contested and disputed and the concept of ethnicity is generally frowned upon as essentialist and regressive. In this paper we explore these contrasting theoretical conceptualisations of citizenship, ethnicity and we link this to the performance of an historical procession.