Barriers to naturalization: How dual citizenship restrictions impede full membership

Dual citizenship restrictions are widely recognized as one of the major barriers for immigrant naturalization. Yet, we know surprisingly little about what drives migrants’ concerns about trading off their former citizenship for a new one. This paper aims at closing this gap by analysing the interrelation between dual citizenship policies and naturalization outcomes on basis of original survey data from Germany. I examine how dual citizenship restrictions as well as subjectively perceived barriers concerning acceptance and belonging regarding citizenship change drive immigrants’ naturalization decisions. Using cluster-robust logistic regression models clustered by origin country, I find that the requirement of giving up one's original citizenship for naturalization impedes immigrants’ naturalization decisions and that perceived barriers concerning acceptance and belonging are also relevant for long-term exclusion from full membership in the destination country.