With the definitive settlement of immigrants in a country, the issue of acquiring the nationality of their adopted country almost inevitably arises, if for no other reason than the fact that it makes possible the full political participation of immigrants in the country. country life. But it also facilitates hiring by the employer and may possibly motivate the immigrant to greater effort (OECD, 2011). In addition, in some countries, access to certain types of employment, especially in the public service, is limited to persons who have the nationality of the country.
As might be expected, the number of nationality acquisitions in Latin American and Caribbean countries tends to reflect the extent of permanent migration (Table 4), that is, the higher the level of permanent migration or long-term migration , the greater the number of people who acquire the nationality of the country.
(Table 4: Acquisition of nationality, selected countries, 2000-2010)
The extent to which immigrants adopt the nationality of the country of residence depends on different factors, including the length of residence in the country, whether the migration is intended to be permanent, the benefits that naturalization brings with respect to access to jobs or the receptivity of the employer, if the country of origin or destination allows dual nationality and the regulatory framework that defines the acquisition of nationality in the country of destination. The ratio of the number of acquisitions to the number of permanent migrants can provide an indicator of the “propensity” to acquire the nationality of the country of residence or the difficulty or ease of obtaining it.
Table 4 suggests that there is a much lower tendency to obtain the nationality of the receiving country in some countries of the Americas compared to, for example, the situation in Canada and the United States, for whom the usual pattern of migration is settlement followed by acquisition. of nationality after a relatively short period. The ratio of the number of acquisitions to the number of permanent migrants is about 0.7 for both countries, while most of the Latin American and Caribbean countries in Table 4 show a ratio below 0.5. There are some exceptions to this, notably Belize and especially Barbados, where the ratio is 1.8 and 3.6, respectively. These high rates surely reflect the requests for nationality by non-residents of those countries,