%0 Journal Article
%T The UK Citizenship Process: Political Integration or Marginalization?
%A David Bartram
%J Sociology
%@ 1469-8684
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0038038518813842
%X The UK ¡®citizenship process¡¯ subjects immigrants to requirements ostensibly intended to enhance their identification with ¡®British values¡¯. Policy-makers suggest the policy will facilitate immigrants¡¯ integration: as they learn about ¡®life in the UK¡¯, they will become better able to understand and navigate core institutions. Many external observers, by contrast, believe that the requirements exacerbate immigrants¡¯ marginalization. I use panel data from ¡®Understanding Society¡¯ to investigate political participation among non-citizen immigrants at Wave 1, comparing those who became citizens by Wave 6 to those who remained non-citizens. Those who became citizens subsequently reported lower interest in politics, relative to those who remained non-citizens; in addition, they were not more likely to be active in organizations (e.g. political parties and trade unions). These findings reinforce the concerns of critics: the UK citizenship policy appears to do more to alienate new citizens than it does to facilitate their integration in the political sphere
%K citizenship
%K immigrants
%K panel data
%K political integration
%K social cohesion
%K ¡®Understanding Society¡¯
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0038038518813842