Acquiring citizenship is often seen as a key milestone in the integration journey of immigrants. But in Italy, the benefits may be more symbolic than substantial. A new study by scholars at the University of Trento, LMU Munich, and the Italian Statistical Office challenges the assumption that naturalisation leads to better job prospects. Instead, it finds that immigrants who become Italian citizens already enjoy higher labour market outcomes before naturalising, suggesting the process rewards the well-integrated, rather than enabling integration.
Naturalisation Follows Integration, Not the Other Way Around
Drawing on a unique combination of administrative and survey data, the study combines retrospective employment histories from the ISTAT Family and Social Subjects Survey (2016) with administrative records on citizenship acquisition and earnings. The researchers track the employment histories of Italian natives, naturalised immigrants, and those who have not acquired citizenship, covering individuals’ first 15 years in the labour market, as well as their earnings at the time of the survey.
The findings? Naturalised immigrants show higher socio-economic attainment and earnings than non-naturalised individuals, but similar employment probabilities, suggesting that citizenship does not significantly improve job access.
Such advantages are largely seen for women, who, when employed, are more likely to hold better jobs. Naturalised immigrants are also more likely to live in Northern regions and to hold educational qualifications obtained in Italy—factors per se associated with better labour market outcomes.
However, the authors show that labour market outcomes do not change significantly after acquiring citizenship, thus revealing a strong selection effect. Immigrants’ disadvantages in employment conditions and occupations compared to natives persist, notwithstanding naturalisation.
A System That Filters, Rather Than Facilitates
Italy stands out in Europe for its particularly strict and slow naturalisation process. Immigrants must wait a full decade before becoming eligible, and then must prove that they have secure housing conditions and adequate income. Unsurprisingly, those who succeed are typically the most integrated to begin with.
Likely, many of them invest in education, are proficient in the Italian language, and hold stable jobs well before becoming eligible for citizenship. In this context, naturalisation serves more as a recognition of integration than as a driver of it, unlike in many other countries.
Policy Lessons: Unlocking the Potential of Citizenship
Despite having one of the highest numbers of naturalisations in the EU in absolute terms and a relatively high naturalisation rate, Italy’s naturalisation regime remains not only restrictive but also administratively complex and slow. As a result, only a select group (among the eligible) of immigrants apply, and many wait years before receiving the final approval.
Evidence from other EU countries suggests that easing access to citizenship—through simpler procedures and shorter waiting times—could significantly improve the integration prospects of immigrants, especially younger cohorts still shaping their careers.
When citizenship is granted earlier in life, it creates space for long-term investment in education, skills, and better employment prospects. For Italy, shifting naturalisation from a reward for successful integration to a lever that enables it could both increase take-up among eligible immigrants and unlock the full potential of naturalisation as a tool for integration.