{"title":"The causal effect of liberalizing legal requirements on naturalization intentions","authors":"Yuliya Kosyakova, Andreas Damelang","doi":"10.1093/sf/soae170","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates the multifaceted factors influencing immigrants’ naturalization intentions, with a primary focus on legal requirements and the implementation of naturalization laws. It distinguishes between different groups of non-citizens, such as refugees, European Union (EU) citizens, and non-EU citizens. Employing a vignette experiment among non-citizens in a large-scale representative data in Germany—the German Socioeconomic Panel (in 2022), the IAB-SOEP Migration Sample (in 2022), and the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees in Germany (in 2021) (Total N = 6431)—the research empirically analyzes the effects of liberalizing legal requirements and the effects of more inclusive naturalization procedure on intentions to acquire German citizenship. This comparison, both for current versus liberalized requirements and less versus more inclusive naturalization procedures, offers a realistic scenario of how liberalization and inclusiveness impact naturalization intentions. The results reveal that liberalizing legal requirements, specifically dual citizenship availability and reduced waiting period, has a positive effect on naturalization intentions. Simultaneously, these effects differ between the three groups of non-citizens, particularly due to differences in the perceived benefits of naturalization. In contrast, a more inclusive naturalization procedure does not affect non-citizens’ naturalization intentions. These results underline the importance of citizenship policy for the naturalization intentions of non-citizens. However, the results also show nuanced reactions to liberalized requirements stressing the importance of group-specific cost–benefit considerations.","PeriodicalId":48400,"journal":{"name":"Social Forces","volume":"81 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Social Forces","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soae170","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"SOCIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study investigates the multifaceted factors influencing immigrants’ naturalization intentions, with a primary focus on legal requirements and the implementation of naturalization laws. It distinguishes between different groups of non-citizens, such as refugees, European Union (EU) citizens, and non-EU citizens. Employing a vignette experiment among non-citizens in a large-scale representative data in Germany—the German Socioeconomic Panel (in 2022), the IAB-SOEP Migration Sample (in 2022), and the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees in Germany (in 2021) (Total N = 6431)—the research empirically analyzes the effects of liberalizing legal requirements and the effects of more inclusive naturalization procedure on intentions to acquire German citizenship. This comparison, both for current versus liberalized requirements and less versus more inclusive naturalization procedures, offers a realistic scenario of how liberalization and inclusiveness impact naturalization intentions. The results reveal that liberalizing legal requirements, specifically dual citizenship availability and reduced waiting period, has a positive effect on naturalization intentions. Simultaneously, these effects differ between the three groups of non-citizens, particularly due to differences in the perceived benefits of naturalization. In contrast, a more inclusive naturalization procedure does not affect non-citizens’ naturalization intentions. These results underline the importance of citizenship policy for the naturalization intentions of non-citizens. However, the results also show nuanced reactions to liberalized requirements stressing the importance of group-specific cost–benefit considerations.
期刊介绍:
Established in 1922, Social Forces is recognized as a global leader among social research journals. Social Forces publishes articles of interest to a general social science audience and emphasizes cutting-edge sociological inquiry as well as explores realms the discipline shares with psychology, anthropology, political science, history, and economics. Social Forces is published by Oxford University Press in partnership with the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.