This study investigates the multifaceted factors influencing immigrants’ naturalization intentions, with a primary focus on legal requirements and the implementation of naturalization laws. It distinguishes between different groups of non-citizens, such as refugees, European Union (EU) citizens, and non-EU citizens. Employing a vignette experiment among non-citizens in a large-scale representative data in Germany—the German Socioeconomic Panel (in 2022), the IAB-SOEP Migration Sample (in 2022), and the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees in Germany (in 2021) (Total N = 6431)—the research empirically analyzes the effects of liberalizing legal requirements and the effects of more inclusive naturalization procedure on intentions to acquire German citizenship. This comparison, both for current versus liberalized requirements and less versus more inclusive naturalization procedures, offers a realistic scenario of how liberalization and inclusiveness impact naturalization intentions. The results reveal that liberalizing legal requirements, specifically dual citizenship availability and reduced waiting period, has a positive effect on naturalization intentions. Simultaneously, these effects differ between the three groups of non-citizens, particularly due to differences in the perceived benefits of naturalization. In contrast, a more inclusive naturalization procedure does not affect non-citizens’ naturalization intentions. These results underline the importance of citizenship policy for the naturalization intentions of non-citizens. However, the results also show nuanced reactions to liberalized requirements stressing the importance of group-specific cost–benefit considerations.

中文翻译：

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放宽法律要求对入籍意愿的因果效应


本研究调查了影响移民入籍意愿的多方面因素，主要关注法律要求和入籍法的实施。它区分了不同的非公民群体，例如难民、欧盟 （EU） 公民和非欧盟公民。该研究在大规模德国代表性数据中采用非公民的小插图实验——德国社会经济小组（2022 年）、IAB-SOEP 移民样本（2022 年）和 IAB-BAMF-SOEP 德国难民调查（2021 年）（总计 N = 6431）——实证分析了放宽法律要求的影响以及更具包容性的归化程序对获得德国公民身份的意图的影响。这种比较，无论是针对当前要求与自由化要求，还是针对较少与更具包容性的入籍程序，都提供了自由化和包容性如何影响入籍意愿的现实情景。结果表明，放宽法律要求，特别是提供双重国籍和缩短等待期，对入籍意愿有积极影响。同时，这些影响在三组非公民之间有所不同，特别是由于对归化的感知好处不同。相比之下，更具包容性的入籍程序不会影响非公民的入籍意愿。这些结果强调了公民身份政策对非公民入籍意愿的重要性。然而，结果也显示了对放开要求的简单反应，强调了特定群体成本效益考虑的重要性。