Explanations of naturalization and jus soli citizenship have relied on cultural, convergence, racialization, or capture theories, and they tend to be strongly affected by the literature on immigration. This study of naturalization breaks with the usual immigration theories and proposes an approach over centuries and decades toward explaining naturalization rates. First, it provides consistent evidence to support the long-term existence of colonizer, settler, non-colonizer, and Nordic nationality regime types that frame naturalization over centuries. Second it shows how left and green parties, along with an index of nationality laws, explain the lion's share of variation in naturalization rates. The text makes these theoretical claims believable by using the most extensive data set to date on naturalization rates that include jus soli births. It analyzes this data with a combination of carefully designed case studies comparing two to four countries within and between regime types.
1. Introduction: the politics of granting citizenship; 2. Wide measures with synthetic and dynamic methods; Part I. The Colonizers and Settlers: 3. Colonization in reverse: the degrees of empire in the UK and France; 4. From manifest destiny to multi-culturalism in the settler countries; Part II. Matched Case Studies and Exceptions: 5. European colonizer versus short term occupier: Austria and Germany; 6. World colonizer versus late occupier: The Netherlands and Belgium; 7. Left and green politics trump regime types in Nordic countries; Part III. The Comprehensive Analysis of Naturalization Rates: 8. Explaining naturalization rates in eighteen countries: regimes over centuries and politics and institutions over decades; 9. Conclusion - explanations and future of citizenship.
