The Effects of Naturalization on Immigrants' Employment Probability (France, 1968-1999)

Naturalization is usually regarded as an important sign of civic and political integration<br />amongst immigrants, but it can also be seen as a factor of their economic integration. The<br />aim of this study is to analyze the naturalization phenomenon in France and examine its link<br />with the immigrants' labor force status. We use longitudinal data from the “Echantillon<br />Démographique Permanent” (EDP) sample. The EDP is a panel dataset by which we can<br />follow almost 1% of the French population from 1968 to 1999 through information contained<br />in the 1968, 1975, 1982, 1990 and 1999 French census. The sample we use (N = 36,685) is<br />limited to immigrants who declared themselves non-naturalized at the time they first<br />appeared in the panel. This makes it possible for us to observe possible changes of<br />nationality between two census dates and their potential consequences on the employment<br />probability at the second date. In our study, the probability of naturalization between two<br />census dates not only depends on observable individual characteristics of immigrants<br />(country of birth, age, marital situation, occupation, human capital, etc.), but also on a<br />number of contextual variables related to the role of the community in the assimilation<br />process (size of the community and number of foreigners in the region of residence). We<br />compare the differential rates of naturalization between the various ethnic groups and try to<br />answer the following question: are there differences between the naturalized immigrant<br />population and the immigrant population as a whole? In the second stage, we analyze the<br />effect of naturalization on the individual employment probability by estimating a univariate<br />probit model. To control for the potential endogeneity of the naturalization process, we also<br />estimate a bivariate probit model. With both models, we find that naturalization has a<br />significant positive effect on immigrants' employability and that this effect is particularly high<br />for groups of immigrants who have a low probability of employment in the host country