Standardised integration requirements for naturalisation: less rights and less discretion? A qualitative meta-analysis of ethnographic studies of naturalisation procedures in Europe

Abstract

Since the late 1990s and early 2000s, in what can be called an ‘integrationist wave’, standardised integration requirements for naturalisation have become increasingly common in Europe. To examine the impact of such measures, I combine original ethnographic data on institutions involved in the implementation of citizenship policies in Belgium and the UK with a qualitative meta-analysis of existing ethnographic studies of the implementation of citizenship policies. I show how, in addition to introducing new obstacles to naturalisation, standardised requirements have also reduced the discretion inscribed in earlier procedures, albeit not uniformly across different cases. The integrationist wave could thus be understood not simply as the introduction of restrictive notions of integration, but also as the systemisation of earlier evaluation practices. I further show signs of a more recent tendency for states to retreat from examining the integration of candidates to citizenship, outsourcing the evaluation directly or indirectly to private actors.