Feeling Equal before the Law? The Impact of Access to Citizenship and Legal Status on Perceived Discrimination

Adriana Rocío Cardozo Silva and Christopher Prömel

No 1223, SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research from DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

Abstract: In this study, we contribute to the literature about the effects of improving access to citizenship on integration outcomes. Hereby, we exploit exogenous variation from two citizenship reforms in Germany to estimate the effects of residency requirements on perceived discrimination, which is strongly linked to individual well-being, sense of belonging, and migration desires and decisions. We find that reducing waiting times to become eligible for citizenship decreases perceptions of discrimination. However, heterogeneity analyses reveal that these effects appear to be mostly limited to men and immigrants from Eastern European countries. In addition to our main analysis, we exploit exogenous variation from EU enlargement to show that citizens from countries that became part of the EU report significantly less discrimination than non-EU immigrants.

Keywords: Perceived Discrimination; Legal Status; Naturalization; EU Enlargement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 J61 J68 J78 K37 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 53 p.
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-law and nep-mig
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp1223

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