Source country matters: Citizenship trends among recent immigrants in Australia and Canada

Citizenship acquisition marks a pivotal milestone in immigrant integration, influencing social cohesion and political participation. While aggregate naturalization rates provide macro-level insights, disparities by source country reveal diverse integration pathways. Through comparative analysis of Australia and Canada—nations with comparable immigration scales and broadly similar immigration approaches, yet notable differences in naturalization frameworks—this study investigates how source-country characteristics affect naturalization patterns. The findings illuminate the complex transition from immigrant to citizen, offering policy-relevant insights into differential integration experiences. Variation in naturalization rates by source country reveals how citizenship acquisition is shaped by both destination-country policies and source-country characteristics (Alarian, 2017). Immigrants from nations with limited political rights, lower economic development or greater cultural distance from the destination society typically demonstrate higher naturalization rates, motivated by the security and mobility that citizenship provides. Conversely, those from high-income, politically stable countries often exhibit lower naturalization urgency (Vink et al., 2013).