ACCESS TO CITIZENSHIP AS A MIGRANT INTEGRATION INDICATOR

Abstract

In terms of states, immigrants reaching important numbers in a country they came and the immigration phenomenon are now on the agenda of governments, arising as a problem which cannot be ignored. On the one hand, efforts to see and control immigration as an element to be managed are at the national and international level, on the other hand, policies aiming to the integration of immigrants within borders have begun to be developed. States that prevent the acceptance of immigrants' citizenship cause economic, social and democratic losses in terms of immigrants. This ensures that both immigrants and international actors often bring the problem to the agenda. This contradiction has led to the emergence of intermediate solutions such as "semi-citizenship" and "European Union citizenship" and “transnational citizenship”. The aim of the study is to analyze the policy of countries on the edge of change regarding access to citizenship. Data from the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) were used in the study. In the index, countries are grouped into six categories according to their access to citizenship policies, in fractions of twenty percent, based on various indicators. In the study, countries that are close to changing policy, that is, to take a step towards citizenship for immigrants, were selected. These are New Zealand (92), Luxembourg ((79), Iceland (55), Italy (40), Croatia(19) and Saudi Arabia (0).The study is structured under three main headings. After examining the relationship between immigration, immigrant and citizenship, the integration of immigrants through the MIPEX indicators was included and the citizenship policies of the determined countries were discussed.