Earning citizenship. Economic criteria for naturalisation in nine EU countries

Figures & data

Figure 1. Economic criteria for naturalisation in nine European countries, 1985–2014.

Figure 2. Main regression results for economic requirements, fees and the overall ECN index.

Figure 3. Interaction effects of immigration and welfare spending with far-right power.

Figure 4. Robustness checks.

Table

Coding scheme for economic requirements for naturalisation
Indicator	Coding options
	(0)	(0.5)	(1)
Legal format	No requirement	Documentation required	Explicit requirement
Threshold	No threshold	No welfare benefits or income threshold at minimum standard of living	Income threshold beyond minimum standard of living
Duration	Only at naturalisation	One to three years	Three years or more
Exemption on social grounds	Explicit exemption	Discretionary decision	No exemptions
Second generation exempted	Exemption or ius soli		No exemption or ius soli
Spouses or kin-citizens exempted	Both are exempted	One category is exempted	No exemption

Table

Coding scheme for costs in the naturalisation process
Indicator	Coding options
	(0)	(0.5)	(1)
Level of costs for naturalisation (continuous variable)	No fee		Highest fee in sample (AT2011: 1314)
Second generation	No fee	Lower fee	Standard fee
Spouses	No fee	Lower fee	Standard fee
Kin-citizens	No fee	Lower fee	Standard fee
Language skills	No certificate required		Certificate required

Table

Variable	Mean	Min	Max	SD	Observations (1990–2014)	Brief description
Index of economic requirements (ERN index)	23.9	0	100	27.8	225	See Appendix 1
Index of naturalisation fees (fee index)	38.7	0	90	24.0	225	See Appendix 1
Index of economic criteria (ECN index)	31.3	0	95	22.2	225	Mean of ERN index and fee index
Citizenship policy inclusiveness	58.4	44.8	79.2	8.8	223	Index of citizenship policies, covering ius soli, residence, civic integration and good conduct requirements and dual citizenship provisions; data and definitions from Stadlmair (2017b); missing data: BE 1990–1991
Immigration rate (5-year average)	6.4	0.8	19.0	3.3	217	5-year average immigration rate: inflows of foreign citizens / population in 1000s; own calculation based on OECD data; missing data: IE 1990–1997; net migration rate for AT 1990–1995
Naturalisation rate	3.6	0.4	11.4	2.2	213	Annual naturalisations/foreign resident population in 100s; Own calculation based on EUROSTAT data; missing data: AT 1990–1994, IE 1990–1996
Economic globalisation	85.4	60.8	97.3	6.5	225	KOF index of economic globalisation (Dreher 2006), version of 2017;
GDP per capita	36.8	21.2	48.6	5.8	225	GDP per capita in 1000 USD (OECD)
Public social spending	23.8	12.6	34.2	4.1	225	Public social spending in % of the GDP (OECD)
Left-wing government	38.0	0	100	34.1	225	Share of leftist cabinet members; data and definition from the Comparative Political Data Set (Armingeon et al. 2017)
Far-right votes (10-year average)	5.6	0	28.2	7.6	225	10-year average electoral share of far-right parties; author’s calculation; data and definition from the Comparative Political Data Set (Armingeon et al. 2017)

Table

Economic requirements for naturalisation in nine EU countries, 1985–2014
Country	Legal format	Type/threshold of requirement	Duration	Exemptions	Exempted categories
Austria	Explicit	Income (until 2006)	≤1 year (until 2006)	Yes (until 2006)	None
		=Minimum standard (2006–2009)		No (2006–2013)
			≥3 years (since 2006)	Yes (since 2013)
		>Minimum standard (since 2009)
Belgium	–	–	–	–	–
	Explicit (since 2013)	Economic activity	1–3 years	Yes	Spouses, 2nd generation
Denmark	–	–	–	–	–
	Explicit (since 2006)	No welfare benefits	≥3 years (2006–2013)	No	Kin-nationals (since 2006)
			1–3 years (since 2013)		2nd generation (since 2014)
Finland	Explicit	No welfare benefits (until 2003)	≤1 year	No (until 2003)	Kin-nationals, 2nd generation
		Legal income (since 2003)		Yes (since 2003)
Germany	Explicit	=Minimum standard	≤1 year	Discretion (until 2000)	None (until 1990)
					2nd generation (since 1990)
				Yes (since 2000)
Ireland	Documentation	–	≤1 year (until 2011)	Discretion	2nd generation
			≥3 years (since 2011)
Netherlands	–	–	–	–	–
Sweden	–	–	–	–	–
United Kingdom	–	–	–	–	–

Table

Fees in the naturalisation process in nine EU countries, 1985–2014
Country	Year	Application (EUR)	Certificate (EUR)	Other (EUR)	Language certificate	Overall (EUR)	Controlled for inflation & PPP		Main fee for 2nd generation
								Kin-nationals		Spouses
Austria	1985	29	509	58^a	no	596	1107	Standard	Standard	Lower
	2000	44	727	153^a		923	1215
	2014	110	977	150^a	yes	1237	1217	Lower	Lower
Belgium	1985	397			no	397	734	Standard	None	None
	2000					0	0	–	–	–
	2014	150			yes	150	147	Standard	Standard	Standard
Denmark	1985				no	0	0	–	–	–
	2000	134				134	176	None	None	Standard
	2014	134		93^c	yes	227	223
Finland	1985	26			no	26	47	Lower	Lower	Standard
	2000	336				336	391
	2014	400			yes	400	358
Germany	1985	51^b			no	51	75	Standard	Standard	Lower
	2000	256			yes	256	312		None	Standard
	2014	255		25^c		280	273
Ireland	1985		190		no	190	383	Standard	None	Lower
	2000		635			635	847
	2014	175	950			1125	1062			Standard
Netherlands	1985	136			no	136	237	Standard	Lower	Standard
	2000	227				227	300
	2014	829		230^c	yes	1059	1041
Sweden	1985	32^d			no	32	62	Standard	Lower	Standard
	2000	59				59	63
	2014	161				161	142
United Kingdom	1985	13	195		no	208	417	Lower	Lower	Lower
	2000	195				195	269
	2014	1073		169^ce	yes	1242	1255			Standard
Average	1985	76	99	6	0/9 yes	182	340	2/8 ≠standard	6/8 ≠standard	5/8 ≠standard
	2000	139	151	17	1/9 yes	307	397	3/8 ≠standard	7/8 ≠standard	3/8 ≠standard
	2014	365	214	74	7/9 yes	653	635	4/9 ≠standard	8/9 ≠standard	1/9 ≠standard

Table

Model	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Dependent variable	ERN index	Fee index	ECN index	ECN index	ECN index	ECN index	ECN index
Citizenship policy inclusiveness	−0.236	0.389**	−0.088	−0.006	0.000	−0.002	0.010
	(.183)	(.121)	(.117)	(.126)	(.131)	(.138)	(.151)
Immigration rate				−0.093
				(.226)
Immigration rate (3-year average)					0.108
					(.308)
Immigration rate (5-year average)						0.502
						(.414)
Immigration rate (5-year average, 3-year lag)							2.044**
							(.448)
Left-wing government				−0.003	−0.002	−0.003	−0.003
				(.019)	(.020)	(.021)	(.023)
Far-right votes (10-year average)				1.917**	1.899**	1.885**	1.694**
				(.349)	(.359)	(.353)	(.382)
Economic globalisation				−0.403	−0.455*	−0.487*	−0.605*
				(.219)	(.225)	(.234)	(.251)
GDP per capita				0.379	0.434	0.461	0.755*
				(.318)	(.323)	(.337)	(.345)
Public social spending				−0.081	0.018	−0.041	−0.398
				(.351)	(.362)	(.378)	(.467)
Decade 1995–2004	0.712	0.791	1.064	−0.218	0.135	0.078	−1.505
	(2.993)	(2.399)	(2.121)	(2.092)	(2.184)	(2.245)	(2.180)
Decade 2005–2014	2.216	2.268	3.244	1.265	1.173	0.83	−1.786
	(4.231)	(3.268)	(2.834)	(2.882)	(2.909)	(2.983)	(2.805)
Constant	39.81*	11.02	32.67**	44.71	42.88	44.65	46.75
	(15.82)	(7.373)	(8.328)	(25.06)	(25.87)	(26.66)	(28.43)
R²	0.059	0.170	0.184	0.314	0.313	0.341	0.405
N	223	223	223	219	217	215	202

Table

Model	8	9	10	13	14	15
Dependent variable	ECN index	ERN index	Fee index	ECN index	ECN index	ECN index
Citizenship policy inclusiveness	−0.124	−0.268	0.387**	0.003	0.000	0.031
	(.155)	(.232)	(.138)	(.151)	(.153)	(0.153)
Immigration rate (5-year average, 3-year lag)	1.744**	1.556*	2.304**	2.079**	1.997**	1.912**
	(.435)	(.700)	(.425)	(.467)	(.516)	(0.474)
Left-wing government	−0.009	0.009	−0.021	−0.003	0.000	−0.010
	(.0225)	(.037)	(.026)	(.023)	(.024)	(0.023)
Far-right votes	0.208
	(.148)
Far-right votes (10-year average)		1.703**	1.294**	3.076	1.843**	1.672**
		(.551)	(.400)	(2.912)	(.589)	(0.458)
Immigration rate (5 year av 3 year lag) X far-right votes (10 year av)					0.011
					(.067)
Public social spending X far-right votes (10 year av)				−0.0524
				(.111)
Economic globalisation	−0.489*	−0.951*	−0.0601	−0.605*	−0.677**	−0.435
	(.237)	(.417)	(.247)	(.251)	(.249)	(0.251)
GDP per capita	1.256**	1.294	0.145	0.732*	0.731*	0.720
	(.361)	(.742)	(.468)	(.347)	(.358)	(0.378)
Public social spending	0.337	−0.297	−0.642	−0.277	−0.404	−0.249
	(.483)	(.845)	(.511)	(.462)	(.489)	(0.480)
Lagged naturalisation rate						−0.546 (0.393)
Decade 1995–2004	−0.663	−1.444	−1.473	−1.476	−1.675	−0.633
	(2.189)	(3.833)	(2.518)	(2.192)	(2.184)	(1.912)
Decade 2005–2014	−1.147	−2.529	−1.458	−1.785	−2.101	−0.835
	(2.822)	(5.101)	(3.270)	(2.817)	(2.789)	(2.603)
Constant	15.22	66.8	12	44.79	54.43	28.64
	(25.48)	(52.4)	(30.97)	(28.31)	(28.13)	(29.74)
R²	0.349	0.301	0.247	0.407	0.533	0.337
N	202	202	202	202	202	198

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