The decline in the naturalization rate among recent immigrants in Canada: Policy changes and other possible explanations

The naturalization rate of immigrants is jointly affected by immigrant characteristics, economic, and political circumstances in the source country and government policies in the destination country. This article focuses on the effect of altering government policies in the destination country, using legislative and regulatory changes introduced in Canada over the 2006–16 period as a test case. We hypothesize that the least advantaged immigrants would be most affected by more restrictive policies. The observed large decline in the naturalization rate among immigrants with low family income, low proficiency in official languages, and low educational levels is consistent with significant policy impacts. Furthermore, the general decline started before the introduction of the new policies, and the decline was particularly large among immigrants from Eastern Asia. This suggests that other factors such as globalization and changes in the socioeconomic environment of some source countries also played a role.