Linda Bosniak. The Citizen and the Alien: Dilemmas of Contemporary Membership, Princeton University Press, 2006

Aiming at Civic Integration? How Canada’s Naturalization Rules are Sidelining Refugees and Family-Class Immigrants

“…7 Citizenship provides societal benefits by encouraging greater participation in political life and by inspiring loyalty and attachment to society (Bloemraad, 2006;Pendakur and Bevelander, 2014). While legal citizenship status alone is insufficient to provide individuals with equal rights, socio-political participation and social inclusion (Marshall, 1964), it remains a necessary condition to achieve the latter and to enable democracy (Bosniak, 2006). A decline in naturalizations for a country that receives more than three-quarters of its population growth through international (im)migration is therefore highly problematic.…”