Long-Term Heterogeneity in Immigrant Naturalization: The Conditional Relevance of Civic Integration and Dual Citizenship

Abstract What are the long-term differences in 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 Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden—three countries with widely changing requirements for acquisition citizenship—to track naturalization eight complete cohorts (1994–2001) up 21 years after migration. We find that two decades country, cumulative rates remarkably over 80 per cent migrants Sweden, two-thirds only around a third Denmark having acquired citizenship. observe lower delayed migrants, especially among those levels education, language integration tests were introduced Netherlands. Dual acceptance Netherlands by contrast, is associated durably higher rates, especially, EU highly developed countries. These findings highlight but conditional relevance policy immigrant naturalization.