The Construction of the Italian Citizenship: The Case of Dual Citizens Living in Istria

The work consists of a qualitative research (grounded theory, ethnography, case study) on the phenomenon of dual citizenship in the County of Istria in Croatia. There were made 32 interviews with 31 persons that applied and obtained the Italian citizenship based on the act 124/2006, applied and gave up, applied and were rejected or still have problems in the procedure, obtained the Italian citizenship based on another act. A few conclusions emerged from the findings: 1) the Italian community in Istria has the characteristics of a particular ethnic group diverse from the Italians in Italy, from the Croats surrounding them, but also from the Istrians as a regional identity; 2) it also emerged that the Italian citizenship is a documented proof of distinction in Bourdieu's terms, and it is in line with the findings of the Optimal Distinctiveness Theory in social psychology.