I’ve lived in Italy for 23 years. Now the 15-year rule has been lifted, I am once again on the UK electoral register – and it feels good. Brexit had made me a voter of nowhere. But it makes little sense to me to be added to a constituency I don’t live in. How can my vote count, and should it count there? How can an MP effectively represent a small number of remote constituents who may not even live on the same continent?
Much can be learnt from Italy, one of a small but growing number of countries to have overseas constituencies, seeing its citizens abroad as an asset. Massimo Ungaro, of the liberal Italia Viva party, was an overseas MP from 2020 to 2022, living in London and representing Italians in Europe. He recently gave the Citizens’ Rights All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) in the UK a valuable insight into the Italian system, both its benefits and its weaknesses.
The charity New Europeans UK, which holds the secretariat of the Citizens’ Rights APPG, is running a campaign with Unlock Democracy for the introduction of overseas constituencies to represent British citizens living abroad.
Italians overseas
Some 10% of Italy’s population, about six million people, live abroad. Since unification in 1861, Italy has had a long history of mass emigration all over the world. Where I am, in Veneto, an annual event marks two large waves of emigration to Brazil, often whole families, working their way out of poverty and proud of their contribution in South America. These days, around three million Italians live in Europe, with London overtaking Buenos Aires as Italy’s “5th city”, Ungaro told us during the online meeting we held on overseas constituencies.
His constituents were very diverse: car factory workers in Germany, second-generation coal miners in Belgium, restaurant owners in Spain and the Canaries, those in finance in the UK. Worldwide, the majority are of working age, with many returning when they are older. In any event, in Italy it is easy to have a picture of who they are. President Sergio Matarella regularly greets his “fellow citizens” around the world in his speeches, calling them a “soft power” of “inestimable value”.
The overseas register (AIRE)
Anyone who lives in Italy must register their residency at their town hall. Italians who live abroad must register with AIRE. This is as much a right as a duty and, in both cases, you are automatically added to the electoral roll and receive voting papers. Online registration on AIRE is simple. While registration is compulsory, Ungaro admits that large numbers don’t register.
One disincentive for registering is maintaining access to the highly valued Italian state healthcare. Brexit, on the other hand, was also a big incentive to register! What appeared to be an “explosion” of Italians in the UK was, in fact, a rush to register in order to protect rights.
By contrast, the UK has no such means of counting its citizens abroad.
Overseas MPs are more than just symbolic
The two houses of the Italian parliament have equal power, unlike in the UK, with a total of 12 representatives for the overseas electorate. Italy has one of the highest numbers of overseas MPs amongst the 17 countries who have them. Ungaro argues the French system is better, “France copied our model and improved it!” with 11 overseas constituencies holding one seat each.
Ungaro accepts that it can be challenging and exhausting trying to meet the needs of constituents who are so diverse and with a vast geographical spread. “But it’s definitely better to have them than not to,” he feels. “They are the only ones who are sensitive and knowledgeable about the issues.” Overseas MPs have made a real difference for their constituents, e.g. bringing about a 50% reduction in a punitive property tax and improving essential consular services, such as with the opening of the Manchester consulate.
Overseas MPs bring “diversity and novelty” to parliament, says Ungaro. They are younger, with more female representation and more English speakers. They sit on normal committees which he confesses dilutes their “bargaining power” (he’d campaigned hard for special committees). Nonetheless, overseas MPs help Italy “foster economic ties, with improved connections,” treating their constituents as a “resource to be valued and supported”. And with their own representatives, Italians abroad are now less unhappy about paying taxes. This was a very long-held gripe which will be familiar to Britons around the world who remain UK taxpayers.
All of this resonates with me. We have persistent Brexit-related problems in Italy which no one truly understands. And there is little awareness that the withdrawal agreement leaves us with fewer rights than other third country nationals. No one is fighting our corner.
Emigrants valued as consumers
Constituents abroad are also significant consumers in the Italian home market. For example, there is what Ungaro calls “turismo di ritorno” – Italians visiting family back home. Also through its overseas communities, Italy promotes “Roots tourism”. This has an important post-Covid role in creating new business and jobs, often in rural, off-the-beaten track locations.
Meanwhile, all I see in the UK is Brexit turning away its ‘doorstep’ consumers. I visit the UK less frequently, no longer shop online from the UK – either it’s too expensive or the online supplier has closed – and, like thousands of others, have had a UK bank account closed! We have essentially been disconnected, to the detriment of UK business as well as ourselves.
As a teacher, I know UK language schools are suffering and so are students in Italy. School trips to the UK are almost impossible now because of the post-Brexit passport and visa requirements.
Post-Brexit issues
Burning issues for Italians, of course, won’t necessarily match those of their British counterparts. For example, Italy favours family reunification while the UK has just made it even harder, if not impossible, for returning Britons with non-British family members. The minimum income requirement is rising steeply and is planned to reach £38,700 in early 2025. And for Britons who remain abroad, in some countries there is the added unfairness of frozen UK state pensions – yet another clear demonstration of the need for representation.
With around 700,000 Italians in the UK, Brexit was a significant workload for Ungaro including issues that fell outside of the withdrawal agreement, such as convertibility of private pensions, voting rights and driving licence exchanges. Britons in Italy are grateful to him for being very vocal on driving licences, speaking up for us as well as Italians in the UK, and helping to get the bilateral agreement over the line.
Apart from MPs and consular services there is a whole system of support for Italians around the globe. Since 1985, there have been regional committees (Comites), which interact with consulates and government, and a General Council (CGIE). The UK Comites became an essential source of Brexit-related information and assistance.
No such system exists the other way round. And the standard response from UK consular services if you have withdrawal agreement problems is to find yourself a lawyer.
As a result of Brexit, UK citizens in the EU joined the estimated 22 million non-EU citizens legally resident in the EU with no local voting rights. Being one of them, I know this is a painful feeling! Overseas MPs can help the push for reciprocal agreements.
Italy commemorated the first vote of overseas constituencies with a postage stamp. The Minister of Communications stated that Italians abroad, (3.5 million then), were “the first ambassadors around the world of Italy’s working and creative abilities”, and the stamp was in recognition of their importance.
A point of interest
When overseas constituencies were first introduced in 2006, turnout from Italians abroad shot up to over 40% and, impressively, has remained at between 30 and 35%. Interestingly, the first time Italians overseas voted for their own representatives, they didn’t vote as expected – with the exception of those in South America. With the overseas voters included, Romano Prodi was able to form a centre-left government, albeit with a waver-thin majority. But it was Mirko Tremaglia, a former fascist and Minister for Italians in the World in Berlusconi’s centre-right government, who had fought very hard to introduce the postal vote and overseas constituencies.
Ungaro said that before that vote no one really knew what Italians overseas thought or wanted. In fact, overseas Italians helped the left gain a majority twice. This is indeed very interesting in the context of UK politics today.
Overseas constituencies for the UK may seem like light years away, but as Ungaro reminded us, “look at where Italy is now compared to 30 years ago”. He feels the UK is on the right path. Yes, we have different histories but there is every reason to have a shared commitment to “improving the quality of democracy”.
Wouldn’t dedicated representatives for overseas citizens also lead to a better global Britain?
