From Naturalization to Nation: The Effect of Citizenship Laws on Immigrants’ National Identification

We examine the impact of 1990 and 2000 laws of citizenship in Germany, which liberalized the path to the acquisition of citizenship, on the national identity of immigrants. Leveraging the exogenous variation in waiting time for naturalization generated by those two reforms, we find that immigrants who benefited from less restrictive conditions to become citizens developed a stronger national identification with Germany, both after and during their waiting time for naturalization. The effect was particularly strong for women and for those immigrants that were older at the time of their arrival. A higher attachment to Germany seems to have been mainly driven by psychological and socioeconomic mechanisms: a more liberal regime reduced subjective concerns about discrimination, heightened immigrants’ social and political participation, and fostered their use of the German language.