Beyond the passport: Assessing the labour market impact of citizenship acquisition among immigrants in Italy

Rocco Molinari , Istat (Istituto Nazionale di Statistica)
Maria Elena Pontecorvo, Istat

Host-country citizenship acquisition represents a fundamental step in immigrants’ settlement trajectory. Evidence consistently suggests that naturalisation improves immigrants’ economic integration by increasing their employment chance, facilitating upward occupational mobility, and yielding better earnings over time. However, previous studies have found that the economic advantage of naturalised immigrants is entirely driven by selectivity. This study investigates the relationship between citizenship acquisition and labour market outcomes focusing on Italy, a country that, despite the unprecedented growth of naturalisations in recent years, has received little scholarly attention. Using Italian Labour Force survey data from 2021 to 2024, the study offers a systematic comparison between naturalised and non-naturalised immigrants. First, through discrete choice and linear regression modelling, it investigates whether, after accounting for a large set of key factors that may be correlated with citizenship acquisition, naturalisation in Italy is associated with higher employment chances and improved occupational outcomes. Second, developing models with interaction terms, the study explores whether the (expected) impact of naturalisation varies according to certain migratory characteristics, such as country of origin and time since migration.

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 Presented in Session P4. Migration, Migrants, and Mobility