Anna Tegunimataka
Senior lecturer
Long-Term Heterogeneity in Immigrant Naturalization: The Conditional Relevance of Civic Integration and Dual Citizenship
Author
Summary, in English
What are the long-term differences in the propensity of immigrants to acquire destination country citizenship under different institutional contexts and how do these vary between migrant groups? This article draws on micro-level longitudinal data from administrative registers in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden—three countries with widely different and changing requirements for the acquisition of citizenship—to track the naturalization propensity of eight complete migrant cohorts (1994–2001) up to 21 years after migration. We find that after two decades in the destination country, cumulative naturalization rates vary remarkably with over 80 per cent of migrants in Sweden, two-thirds in the Netherlands, and only around a third in Denmark having acquired citizenship. We observe lower rates and delayed naturalization for migrants, especially among those with lower levels of education, after language requirements and integration tests were introduced in Denmark and the Netherlands. Dual citizenship acceptance in the Netherlands and Sweden, by contrast, is associated with durably higher citizenship acquisition rates, especially, among migrants from EU and highly developed countries. These findings highlight the long-term but conditional relevance of citizenship policy for immigrant naturalization.
Department/s
- Centre for Economic Demography
- Department of Economic History
Publishing year
2021-01-27
Language
English
Pages
751-765
Publication/Series
European Sociological Review
Volume
37
Issue
5
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Topic
- Economic History
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0266-7215