ROME — An Italian referendum on granting faster citizenship to certain immigrants and seeking to strengthen labor rights failed because of low turnout, after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia ...

An Italian referendum on granting faster citizenship to immigrants has failed due to low voter turnout. Italy's right-wing government was against it and tried to boycott the democratic process.

A key referendum measure aimed to reduce the period of residence to apply for Italian citizenship by naturalisation from 10 to 5 years. If passed, the new rules would have affected about 2.5 ...

Italian economists have said the change could also be a useful measure to address the problems resulting from Italy's aging society and low birthrate — just 12% of the population is younger than 14.

The referendum, which sought to reduce the time it takes to become a naturalized citizen from 10 years to five, failed because fewer than 50% of eligible voters took part in two days of voting.