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Assessments of citizenship criteria: are immigrants more liberal?

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  • Arnfinn H. Midtbøen, Institute for Social Research, Oslo
  • ,
  • Grete Brochmann, University of Oslo
  • ,
  • Marta Bivand Erdal, Peace Research Institute Oslo
  • ,
  • Mathias Kruse
  • Kristian Kriegbaum Jensen, Aalborg University
  • ,
  • Pieter Bevelander, Malmö University
  • ,
  • Per Mouritsen
  • Emily Cochran Bech, Ramboll Group AS

The literature on citizenship policies is flourishing, yet we know little of which naturalisation requirements majorities and minorities find reasonable, and how they view existing citizenship regimes. Drawing on original survey data with young adults in Norway (N = 3535), comprising immigrants and descendants with origins from Iraq, Pakistan, Poland, Somalia and Turkey, as well as a non-immigrant majority group, this article examines whether perceptions of ideal citizenship criteria and assessments of Norway’s current rules differ between groups. In terms of ideal citizenship criteria, we find a striking similarity across groups when looking at six different dimensions of citizenship policy. When merged into an index and estimated in a multivariate regression model, we find that both immigrants and descendants are significantly more liberal than natives are, yet the differences are small. When assessing the semi-strict citizenship regime in Norway, we find that immigrants are significantly more positive towards the current rules than natives. The results lend little support to recent work on ‘strategic’ and ‘instrumental’ citizenship and point instead to a close to universal conception of the terms of membership acquisition in Norway. This suggests that states may operate with moderate integration requirements while maintaining the legitimacy of the citizenship institution.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
Volume46
Issue13
Pages (from-to)2625-2646
Number of pages22
ISSN1369-183X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2020

    Research areas

  • Citizenship, immigration, integration, membership, naturalisation

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