No naturalization, no participation? : the influence of citizenship regimes and naturalization on immigrants' political participation

Abstract

This article assesses the effect of naturalization and inclusive citizenship regimes on immigrants’ conventional and unconventional political participation in 26 European countries. I argue that both naturalization and inclusive citizenship regimes increase immigrants’ sense of belonging to the country of residence and hence their political engagement. Using data from the European Social Survey and applying matching techniques in order to tackle endogeneity between naturalization and participation, I show that in countries with inclusive citizenship regimes the positive acquisition effect for naturalized immigrants is less pronounced than in more restrictive citizenship regimes. These results indicate that the effect of naturalization is highly dependent on the context of the citizenship regimes, a finding previously unnoticed due to the methodological challenges involved in the highly endogenous process of applying for and acquiring citizenship.