Determinants of Positive Naturalisation Intentions among Germany's Labour Migrants

Abstract

This study adds another piece to the puzzle of naturalisation among individuals with an immigrant background by further developing the application of social identity. I suggest that two important determinants of an intention to naturalise are identification with one's country of origin, and discrimination. The effects of these and other predictors associated with social identity theory are empirically tested with data from the 1995 to 2002 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel. The models additionally account for institutionally generated opportunities for naturalisation and their advantages. Findings from conditional fixed-effects models show that intentions to naturalise correspond only partially to the assumptions of social identity theory. Discrimination decreases the odds of respondents intending to naturalise; increasing in-group identification does not. Social and cultural integration are also found to decrease rather than increase the odds, as do unemployment and a short duration of stay. Replicating previous results, political utilities increase the odds that respondents will demonstrate positive naturalisation intentions. The data do not confirm the claim that the higher rates of naturalisation among Turkish nationals are associated with their lower social status and their desire to improve it.

Keywords:

• Citizenship
• Naturalisation
• In-Group Identification
• Identity Strategies
• Germany

Acknowledgements

I thank Eldad Davidov, Thomas Gschwend, Betty Haire-Weyerer, Roni Polonsky, Peter Schmidt and Caroline Wittig, together with the anonymous JEMS reviewers, for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper. I also thank the German Research Foundation for their generous scholarship, which made this research possible.

Notes

1. Foreign-born children of German citizens, whose German parent was born before December 1999 or who would be stateless without German citizenship, are automatically granted German citizenship. The same applies to German descendants arriving from the former communist East or Central Europe or Asia.

2. Foreign residents who have committed crimes punishable with six months' imprisonment or more are ineligible.

3. The wording of the indicator in 1995 differs from that used in later waves. In 1995, the indicator asked to what extent the respondents still feel foreign in Germany. In 1997 and onwards, it asked how close they feel to their country of origin.

4. The GSOEP includes an indicator asking respondents if they have contact with Germans; this indicator was only used until 1999. The indicators used here in its place are measured throughout the period of the sample.

5. This indicator is problematic to the extent that, for members of ethnic minorities from Turkey and the former Yugoslavia, there is a meaningful difference between their country of origin and their ethnic group.

6. This is known as the ‘incidental parameters problem’ and is elaborated in Greene (2003: 695–8).