Stagnated Liberalization, Long‐term Convergence, and Index Methodology: Three Lessons from the CITRIX Citizenship Policy Dataset

Abstract

In this article, I present the second version of the Citizenship Regime Inclusiveness Index (CITRIX 2.0). It measures the inclusiveness of regulations for immigrants’ access to citizenship across 23 OECD countries from 1980 to 2019, zooming in on four essential policy components: conditions regarding (1) birthright; (2) residence; (3) renunciation; and (4) integration. While explaining the construction of the dataset, I advance a synthetic approach to index methodology. The main idea of this approach is to use statistical dimensionality tests to validate deductively specified additive concept structures. This is the first lesson we can learn from CITRIX. After validating the index in terms of content, dimensionality, and convergence, a short empirical analysis presents two additional lessons. First, after two cycles of liberalization and subsequent restrictive turns, mostly in integration conditions, aggregate citizenship policy inclusiveness has stagnated, but liberalized overall. 2003 marks the peak of liberalization. Second, there has been long‐term convergence constituted by two phases of convergence with one diverging phase in between. I conclude that liberalization is more limited, and convergence more pronounced, than often assumed. CITRIX offers a versatile toolbox for future research to explore citizenship policies and their correlates. Regular updates are planned.

The importance of citizenship for deserving COVID-19 treatment

“…For much of the 20th century, it was very difficult to acquire German citizenship, which meant the citizen/non-citizen divide was a bright line that marked more social exclusion than elsewhere in Western Europe Joppke (1999). However, in recent years, German citizenship law has liberalized and converged towards European norms (Koopmans et al, 2012;Schmid, 2021). While every country has unique particularities, the citizen/non-citizen divide in Germany is now comparable to the citizen/non-citizen divide across Western Europe (Geddes and Scholten, 2016).…”

Citizenship Studies: Policy Causes and Consequences

“…Converting policy typologies into indices, scholars could employ statistical regression models to study not only the determinants of citizenship policy, as discussed above, but also the average and generalized effects of citizenship policy settings on immigrant integration more generally (Goodman & Wright 2015) and naturalization rates specifically (e.g., Dronkers & Vink 2012). These are only some of the indices for measuring and comparing citizenship policy (see also Koopmans et al 2012, DEMIG 2015, Schmid 2021b, and none are without their limitations or problems (Ruedin 2015;Goodman 2012Goodman , 2015.…”

Migration Policy Indicators

“…Most frequently, indexes cover one or 2 years. However, there are indexes that encompass more years such as CITRIX (Citizenship Regime Inclusiveness Index, Schmid, 2021), Commitment to Development Index (Centre for Global Development, 2018), ECN index (Index of fees and economic requirements for naturalisation: Stadlmair, 2018), IMPIC , Inquiry among Governments on Population and Development, Multiculturalism Policy Index (Banting & Kymlicka, 2013), and MIPEX (Huddleston et al, 2015;Solano & Huddleston, 2020). This is sometimes done by assessing policies for either a number of continuous years or every n years.…”