Individual and Structural Barriers to Citizenship Acquisition

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?

Research Design and Methodology

The overall research methodology is mixed. Across the workstreams, multiple approaches are used: analysis of administrative records, surveys and survey experiments, and interviews. Together, the three workstreams form a cohesive mixed-methods design.

Collaborators

University of British Columbia Centre for Migration Studies

University of Toronto

Concordia University

Research Assistants

  • Carolina Reyes Marquez (Doctoral Student, Political Science, University of Toronto)
  • Taylor Jackson (Doctoral Student, Political Science, University of Toronto)

Outputs

Conferences & Events

"Political Socialization & Conversational AI: Single vs Repeated Interactions," presented by Laflamme, L., Hopkins, V., Sevi, S., Rubenson, D., American Political Science Association, Vancouver, Canada, December 10, 2025

"Stereotypes of High- and Low-Skilled Immigrants to Canada: Evidence From an Online Pilot Study," presented by Paquet, M., APSA Pre-Conference Event on Narrative and Text Analysis in the Study of Migration and Citizenship, Vancouver, Canada, September 10, 2025

IRCC presentation, presented by Ellermann, A., Schinnerl, S., IRCC (Citizenship branch and Research and Knowledge Mobilization), 27 November, 2025

“The journey to citizenship: Trends and current research,” presented by Schinnerl, S. 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 Schinnerl. S at the Metropolis Identities conference, Vancouver, Canada, October 30-31, 2024

"Perspectives on immigrant employment and the future of work" hybrid event, UBC Centre for Migration Studies, Vancouver, Canada, February 26, 2024

Project Status

This project is currently in the Planning and Data Collection phase.

Keywords

Canadian citizenship; citizenship; citizenship acquisition; structural barriers; naturalization

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This research was undertaken thanks in part to funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.