ImmigrationWhy some immigrants get citizenship

By Peter Dizikes

The path to citizenship is difficult anywhere // Source: bigstock.com

For immigrants, the path to citizenship in many countries is filled with hurdles: finding a job, learning the language, passing exams. For some people, however, the biggest obstacle of all may be one they cannot help: their country of origin.

This is one conclusion of a methodologically innovative study of European immigrants suggesting that, other qualifications being equal, migrants from certain countries may be roughly 40 percent less likely than others to gain citizenship.

Even if an immigrant has obtained a good education and job, and solid language skills, simply being from the wrong country can be a “massive disadvantage,” says Jens Hainmueller, an associate professor of political science at MIT and a co-author of the study, along with Dominik Hangartner of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

“By far the most decisive factor in the applicants of immigrants is their country of origin,” Hainmueller says.

There is good news for immigrants, however: The study also suggests that such biases against people from particular nations tend to shift over time, and often occur due to temporary social circumstances, such as the number of immigrants arriving from one country at a particular moment.

“The results suggest that interactions with immigrant groups can really remove prejudice over time,” Hainmueller says.

Citizens speaking at the ballot box
The study’s findings are based on voting from 1970 to 2003 in Switzerland, where many municipalities used direct referendums in which local citizens voted on citizenship applications — an unusual approach among European countries. In particular, immigrants from Turkey and the former Yugoslavia fared worse in the voting than applicants from other countries. The results are in a paper — “Who Gets a Swiss Passport? A Natural Experiment in Immigrant Discrimination” — published in the latest issue of the American Political Science Review.

The use of voting data allowed Hainmueller and Hangartner to circumvent problems that may occur when studying attitudes toward immigration in other ways. While public opinion surveys about immigration may be useful, not all respondents reveal their true views to pollsters, especially if they think those opinions might seem controversial. But the Swiss data reflect “people who are just voting their true preferences, what they really think about this,” Hainmueller says. “And the outcome really mattered to people.”