The Monetary Dimension of Civic Integration: Economic Criteria for Naturalisation in Western European Countries

Several Western European countries demand some form of economic performance or self-sufficiency from migrants who apply for naturalisation, thus making citizenship and therefore access to most electoral rights conditional upon economic well-being. Although such criteria are sometimes covered in indices on citizenship policy (Huddleston et al. 2011; Koopmans et al. 2012; Vink and Bauböck 2013), we know very little about their development and different forms of economic criteria for naturalisation. This paper aims at describing economic criteria in nationalisation policies in a comparative perspective, investigating their variation in Western Europe in the past three decades and identifying potential factors underlying such variation. Two indices are presented, differentiating between economic requirements for naturalisation (income/employment requirements and criteria of not having received certain welfare benefits) and naturalisation fees, offering a comparative perspective on both the intensity and on the scope of economic criteria in the naturalisation process. Empirically, the paper covers policy reforms in the EU-15 over the period of 1985-2012. After a discussion of measurement validity (Helbling 2013), the paper aims to provide insights on factors explaining the development of economic criteria for naturalisation, testing four hypotheses: (1) the intensity and scope of economic criteria reflect general policy patterns on citizenship for immigrants (Howard 2009; Huddleston et al. 2011; Koopmans et al. 2012); (2) economic criteria emerge in the context of civic integration policies (Goodman 2010); (3) economic criteria are introduced in order to control increasing naturalisation rates; (4) economic criteria are introduced by governments in which centre-right parties hold the administrative responsibility for citizenship matters. To conclude, the paper discusses analytical strengths and limitations of focusing on single criteria in citizenship policies versus creating overall policy indices.