IMMIGRANT
NATURALIZATION IN COMPARATIVE CONTEXT
Policy Changes, Practical Obstacles and Research Challenges
The Danish
Institute
for Human Rights invites you to a research symposium on
naturalization
Date:
Tuesday 19 June 2018
Time:
12:00 – 17:30 hrs.
Place:
Danish Institute for Human Rights
Location:
Wilders Plads 8 K, 1403 Copenhagen
K - Nordskov, 3. floor
In the wake of the European refugee crisis and the influx of migrants
into European countries, migrant integration is at the top of the
political agenda. The acquisition of citizenship through naturalization,
in this context, is often an important event in the process of settling
in a new country. Obtaining a passport, and hence the citizenship of a
host country, provides for migrants a secure residence status, rights,
and participation opportunities. Besides, it may encourage a sense of
belonging.
Yet, politicians and voters have different views on whether citizenship
should be regarded as a reward for a successfully completed
integration or, by contrast, as an incentive to reach this goal. As a
result, the conditions under which citizenship can be acquired vary
significantly between countries and have, moreover, changed often
over time within individual countries. For example, whereas Sweden
liberalized the access to citizenship already in 2001 by accepting dual
citizenship, Denmark only accepted dual citizenship in 2015 and the
Netherlands is currently considering following these Nordic examples.
In terms of residence requirements, in both the Netherlands and
Sweden immigrants are eligible for ordinary naturalization after five
years, whereas this citizenship can only be acquired after nine years
in Denmark. In all three countries, different rules exist for family
members, stateless persons and, in Denmark and Sweden, also for
Nordic citizens. Moreover, whereas in Sweden – apart from the
absence of a criminal record – citizenship is virtually unconditional
upon other requirements, both Denmark and the Netherlands have
instituted language and civic integration requirements since the early
2000s. Finally, income requirements, fees and administrative
discretion may impose additional obstacles in the road to becoming a
citizenship and acquiring the rights attached to that status.
In this research symposium, we discuss how these varying and
changing requirements affect immigrant naturalization in these three
countries: Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. We discuss
available evidence about the (changing) number of naturalizations
since the late 1990s, reflect on insights about practical obstacles to
citizenship from a migrant perspective and consider the opportunities
and constraints of researching these important questions based on
population register data which are uniquely available in these three
countries.