Access to Citizenship and the Economic Assimilation of Immigrants

Abstract

Immigrants often have lower employment rates and earnings than natives. Our empirical analysis relies on two reforms generating exogenous variation in the waiting time for citizenship. We find that faster access to citizenship improves the economic situation of immigrant women, especially their labour market attachment with higher employment rates, longer working hours and more stable jobs. Immigrants also invest more in host country-specific skills like language and vocational training. Faster access to citizenship seems a powerful policy instrument to boost economic integration in countries with traditionally restrictive citizenship policies.