ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the city of Reggio Emilia. It begins with a description of the campaign “Italy is me, too! For the rights of citizenship” that was launched in 2010 by the left-wing administration in cooperation with lay and church-based civil society organizations, as well as migrant communities. The campaign spread in many cities across Italy. Its goal was to collect enough signatures for two popular legislative propositions. The first proposition concerned the introduction of the jus soli principle to grant citizenship to children born in Italy to immigrant parents; the second focused on granting non-EU citizens the right to vote in local elections. Using this example and asking why this campaign was launched in Reggio Emilia, I identify the actors involved in the mobilization, their characteristics, as well as the forms of participation and demands that were made by these pro-immigrant actors and immigrant groups. I analyze the role of ideological and strategic positioning and the interactions of these actors in affecting approaches to inclusion, and the types of alliances they developed with immigrant groups and the type of activism they encourage. I show how specific local dynamics shape the ways in which immigrant groups mobilize and make claims in the city.
