Blood and Soil: the routes of White Privilege. An historical perspective on Italian (post)colonial citizenships

One of the main pillars of the nation-state is the definition of who belongs or not to the national community. In the fundament of national state unity, there is a principle of categorization, or discrimination, that divides the established, the full citizens, from the ‘others, the outsiders, the foreigners’1. For this reason, citizenship is an outstanding issue for every state and it is linked to social, economic, ethnic, gender and generational features. Starting from general considerations about what citizenship is, and how we can define it, this brief contribution aims to point out some specific characters of this institution making a connection with the Italian case and its historical development. Far from being a secondary or a minor side of this subject, colonies were the places in which a different hierarchy of citizenship was implemented. A focus on colonial spaces could shed light on the hierarchical structure of citizenship juridical institution concerning the civil and the political rights of the individuals. After considering the hierarchical structure of citizenship and its colonial outcomes, the analysis will trace a general comparison with postcolonial Italian citizenships2, stressing the continuity of the hierarchical and discrimination policy of citizenship and its strong connection with labour and the workforce market