Does Dual Citizenship Increase Naturalization? Evidence from Indian Immigrants in the U.S.

This paper shows that the availability of dual citizenship, or here Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI), leads to higher naturalization rates in the country of residence. The analysis is based on three distinct naturalization rates, calculated on the basis of annual immigration flows and naturalizations seven years later; the resident population eligible for naturalization; and naturalization records for specific immigrant cohorts. To isolate effects specific to India as the country of origin from general factors in the U.S., the development of naturalization rates for Indian, or India-born, immigrants is juxtaposed with the respective rates for all Asian immigrants to the U.S. and for all immigrants to the U.S. as comparison groups. It is further argued that we need to contextualize the naturalization decision, considering factors in the country of origin, destination, as well as in the migrant community alike.

Although general factors in the U.S. might have influenced the overall increase in Indian immigrant naturalizations, comparison with Asia-born and other foreign-born immigrants indicates that there is a significant OCI-related newcomer effect for India-born immigrants, resulting in faster acquisition of U.S. citizenship and higher levels of naturalizations for newer immigrant cohorts. However, the data suggest that the bulk effect for older immigrant cohorts is less strongly articulated than the newcomer effect is for more recent ones. Depending on the metric used, the naturalization rate of Indian immigrants grew stronger than that of the chosen comparison groups by 2 to 12.8 percentage points.