Does Citizenship Deliver? Persistent Gaps in Employment and Earnings after Naturalization

This study examines whether naturalization improves employment and income outcomes for immigrants in the United States. Drawing on 22 years of panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), this analysis tracks 313 naturalized immigrants to assess changes in employment status, labor force participation, annual income, and year-over-year income growth. Contrary to prevailing assumptions, findings indicate that naturalization does not produce consistent or positive economic returns. On average, naturalization is associated with a 9.7 percentage point decline in employment rates and an 11.8 percent decrease in annual income. Income growth also drops by 4.2 percentage points post-naturalization. Disaggregated analyses reveal that women experience an 18 percent income drop and a 10.2 percentage point reduction in employment, while non-White immigrants see a 10.5 percentage point drop in employment and a 6.8 percentage point decline in proportion of weeks worked. Dynamic year-by-year models further demonstrate that these adverse effects persist or even worsen over time. These findings challenge the assumption that citizenship alone reliably facilitates economic mobility, highlighting significant limitations of naturalization as a standalone strategy for immigrant integration.