Naturalisation in context: how nationality laws and procedures shape immigrants’ interest and ability to acquire nationality in six European countries

Abstract

This article focuses on the interest and ability to acquire destination country nationality among non-EU-born adults in six European countries. While a sizeable literature has emerged on nationality policies and acquisition rates among immigrants, the ways that policies affect the acquisition process are less well understood. A key question is how laws and procedures affect the interest of immigrants to acquire nationality and their ability to do so in practice. This article argues that both immigrants' interest and ability to acquire nationality are largely driven by their context, but in very different ways, depending on their individual, origin and destination country characteristics. The analysis finds that interest to acquire nationality is particularly affected by origin country dual nationality laws and destination country nationality procedures, while destination country nationality laws and procedures are the major determinant of immigrants' ability to acquire nationality. These findings give citizenship policymakers reason to reflect on the potential impact of their laws and procedures on ability and interest, particularly given the fact that promotional measures and targeted integration support are generally weak across Europe.

Who Wants to Become Italian? A Study of Interest in Naturalisation among Foreign Migrants in Italy

“…In a similar vein, nation-specific restrictions on dual citizenship may affect migrants' interest in becoming citizens; migrants whose country of origin does not allow dual citizenship would incur higher costs and fewer advantages by naturalising (Anil, 2007) and would therefore naturalise at a lower rate, as previous studies have corroborated (Harpaz & Mateos, 2018;Huddleston, 2020;Mazzolari, 2009;Peters et al, 2016;Vink et al, , 2021Yang, 1994). By contrast, migrants who plan to settle permanently and invest in their host country (e.g.…”

“…Naturalisation is the final result of a process that begins with the migrant’s interest and then depends on his/her capacity to overcome obstacles such as affording the costs associated with the naturalisation procedure and meeting the requirements established by the host country. Following the approach recently proposed by Huddleston ( 2020 ), we employ a cost–benefit approach to study interest in naturalisation in Italy to examine the relationship between interest, eligibility (i.e. meeting the requirements to apply for citizenship) and migrant status and then discuss the findings’ policy implications.…”

Going Global: Opportunities and Challenges for the Development of a Comparative Research Agenda on Citizenship Policies at the Global Level

“…Comparing administrative implementation is, however, much more difficult than comparing legal rules, because the former can only be captured through internal administrative documents or even observation of individual cases. First steps have been made towards the goal of comparatively analysing naturalisation procedures in European countries (Huddleston & Falcke, 2020). But a global and longitudinal dataset on administrative implementation of citizenship rules remains beyond reach.…”

Heterogeneous Naturalization Effects of Dual Citizenship Reform in Migrant Destinations: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Europe

“…14 However, the difference between automatic loss and inability to renounce may still play an important role in the decision to naturalise. After all, dual citizenship reform can be part of a broader public effort to encourage interest in naturalisation, such as by promotional campaigns by state or municipal officials, or by community members sharing their naturalisation experiences, which are known to positively affect naturalisation rates (Bloemraad 2006;Huddleston 2020). Yet, such broader promotion of citizenship is likely to affect those who cannot renounce their origin citizenship more strongly, compared to those who automatically lose their original citizenship; after all, the costs of naturalisation are lower for the former group of migrants who do not face a trade-off decision.…”