Radici antiche di una questione attuale: il diritto di cittadinanza come dispositivo di esclusione.

This paper aims to develop an investigation around “institutional racism”, considering a specific case: the Italian law on “Citizenship” (L. 91/1992), based on the transmissibility by descent (ius sanguinis). The hypothesis is to illuminate the mechanisms of exclusion linked to this directive, mainly to the detriment of “second generations”, foreign de jure, Italian de facto. Therefore, the Athenian civic myth of autochthony is examined, to expose the critical issues related to ius sanguinis. Far from useless anachronisms, the purpose is to show the continuity of archetypes, cause of illegitimate differentiations within the same community, which seem to substantiate a wider phenomenon, definable as “eternal racism”.