Project Overview
This project investigates the decline in Canadian citizenship acquisition, especially among disadvantaged newcomers such as low-income individuals, those with limited language proficiency, and those with lower education levels. Despite Canada’s traditionally high naturalization rate, recent decades have seen a significant drop, raising concerns since citizenship is key to immigrants’ civic participation, social belonging, and economic integration.
We focus on understanding the administrative burdens that newcomers face when navigating the citizenship process, including learning, psychological, and compliance costs. These burdens can deter eligible immigrants from applying for citizenship, thereby limiting their access to the benefits associated with naturalization, such as better employment opportunities and higher earnings.
Through a mixed-methods approach, including interviews, survey experiments, and analysis of administrative records, this project aims to identify the barriers to citizenship and propose policy solutions to make the naturalization process more accessible and equitable. The findings will inform recommendations to reduce these barriers, especially for economic immigrants transitioning from temporary status to permanent residency. Ultimately, this research seeks to support the design of more inclusive and low-burden pathways to Canadian citizenship.
Research Questions
- Why are Canada’s naturalization rates declining?
- To what extent do administrative burdens weaken access to citizenship in Canada?
- How can administrative support promote inclusive, low-burden pathways to citizenship?
Methods
- Econometric Modeling
- In-depth Interviews
- Statistical Analysis
- Survey Experiments
Collaborators
University of British Columbia Centre for Migration Studies
- Principal Investigator: Vince Hopkins (Assistant Professor, Political Science)
- Irene Bloemraad (Professor, Political Science and Sociology)
- Antje Ellermann (Professor, Political Science)
- Lisa Brunner (Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Migration Studies)
- Sandra Schinnerl (Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Migration Studies)
University of Toronto
- Phil Triadafilopoulos (Professor, Political Science)
- Carolina Reyes Marquez (Doctoral Student, Political Science)
- Taylor Jackson (Doctoral Student, Political Science)
Concordia University
- Mireille Paquet (Associate Professor, Political Science)
Outputs
Presentation
“The journey to citizenship: Trends and current research,” presented by Sandra Schinnerl as part of the panel “Impact of changing identities and public perceptions on newcomer experiences,” AMSSA Leadership Forum, September 25, 2024.
“The journey to citizenship: Trends and current research,” presented by Sandra Schinnerl at the Metropolis Identities conference, Vancouver, Canada, October 30-31, 2024.
Project Status
This project is currently in the Planning and Data Collection phase.
This research was undertaken thanks in part to funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.
