At the end of February, King Baudouin Foundation, Migration Policy Group and partners presented at Brussels the outcome of the project „Access to citizenship and its impact on immigrant integration” (ACIT). ACIT assessed the way in which access to citizenship facilitates integration of third country nationals, taking into account the specific legislation in the integration field from the analyzed countries and the conditions in the immigrants’ areas of origin.

The project had at its basis the study Immigrant Citizen Survey - How immigrants experience integration (2012) done in 7 European countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The study focused on 6 main topics: labor, language, civic and political participation in society, family integration, long-term stay and citizenship. Those who participated in the study were asked to reassess their aspirations and integration needs and then to decide how efficient are policies in host countries in order to meet those needs.

The conclusions of the study were that the immigrants’ experiences linked to integration and the problems they faced varied according to the national context from the host country (legislation, practices, authorities’ involvement and bureaucracy level). Still, in every country from the study there are common important aspects, which means that immigrants who obtain long stay motivates them to participate in the economic and social life and it is a real support in integration. Obtaining citizenship offers naturalized immigrants the occasion to participate in the political life and equal opportunities with the natives, access to the cultural and economic life of the society. The fields which need improving are the integration programs, recognising qualifications from third countries and political participation of immigrants.

The study is a consistent material both for public debates on immigrant integration topics and for interventions at a policy level for improving the situation. At the same time, it supplies to researchers and organizations the data and the example to go deeper into the study on certain fields related to integration through a specific methodogy, suitable for the purpose. The research report is available free of charge in pdf format at http://www.immigrantsurvey.org/downloads/ICS_ENG_Full.pdf.

Source: http://www.migpolgroup.com/publications_detail.php?id=372.