Why Immigrants Don’t Naturalize

Here is a memo by Alan Hyde (Rutgers-Newark) summarizing the studies on why eligible immigrants might not naturalize.   Download Why Don’t They Naturalize Here is the executive summary he posted to the ImmigrationProf listserve:

“The US has internationally low rates of naturalization of its foreign-born residents. Only 40 percent of foreign-born residents of the US have become citizens, compared with 72 percent in Canada and 68 percent in Australia. The single largest factor explaining the difference is the unfriendliness of US naturalization procedures, which are lengthy, expensive, and unwelcoming. By contrast, countries with higher naturalization rates make naturalization a policy priority. These differences in procedure explain the different naturalization rates in demographically similar immigrant communities. There are also some demographic factors that explain decisions not to naturalize. This decision is correlated with having a home country that is geographically close to the US and neither very poor nor a sender of refugees, so that return to the homeland is a realistic plan. By contrast, there are no data suggesting that economic returns to citizenship status significantly influence the decision to naturalize. The larger implication is the greater predictive power of models of migration and naturalization that treat individuals as embedded in political and social structures, as opposed to methodologically individualistic models that treat individuals as maximizers.”  (emphasis added).

It appears that there is a need for additional research in this all-important area.  It does appear that the nation should look carefully at improving its naturalization processes and procedures. 

KJ