Working Paper
Co-authored with Sergi Pardos-Prado, this paper elaborates and tests the idea that the liberalization of immigration regimes should reduce the propensity of immigrants to naturalize.
Abstract
Cosmopolitan normative theory holds that democracies should maximize the openness of immigration regimes and the inclusiveness of citizenship regimes. This position would be complicated if free movement rights would reduce immigrants’ propensity to naturalize. In this article, we argue that this relationship can be expected. Using six rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS) to identify first-generation immigrants and their naturalization status across 17 Western European destination countries, we test this hypothesis through two studies. Study 1 exploits variation in the timing of the removal of mobility restrictions following Eastern European EU enlargement. Study 2 compares immigrants who migrated under free-movement regimes with those subject to immigration restrictions. Both studies show that free movers are significantly less likely to naturalize than those admitted through controlled immigration channels. At the same time, this relationship may be specific to Europe, where supranational citizenship rights – another kind of cosmopolitan institution – reduce the benefits of acquiring national citizenship. Therefore, cosmopolitan normative theory is complicated by our study only to a limited degree.
Cosmopolitan normative theory holds that democracies should maximize the openness of immigration regimes and the inclusiveness of citizenship regimes. This position would be complicated if free movement rights would reduce immigrants’ propensity to naturalize. In this article, we argue that this relationship can be expected. Using six rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS) to identify first-generation immigrants and their naturalization status across 17 Western European destination countries, we test this hypothesis through two studies. Study 1 exploits variation in the timing of the removal of mobility restrictions following Eastern European EU enlargement. Study 2 compares immigrants who migrated under free-movement regimes with those subject to immigration restrictions. Both studies show that free movers are significantly less likely to naturalize than those admitted through controlled immigration channels. At the same time, this relationship may be specific to Europe, where supranational citizenship rights – another kind of cosmopolitan institution – reduce the benefits of acquiring national citizenship. Therefore, cosmopolitan normative theory is complicated by our study only to a limited degree.