The citizenship-integration nexus from below: migrants’ understanding of citizenship acquisition as a pathway to integration in Italy and Spain

Citizenship acquisition represents a crucial step to achieve full integration in the country of residence. Yet, citizenship studies have largely addressed the relevance of institutional configuration of citizenship regimes to foster integration while sidelining migrants’ subjective understanding of citizenship as a pathway to integration. The objective of this article is to gather empirical evidence of migrants’ understanding of how citizenship acquisition shapes integration. It argues that the subjective dimension of citizenship acquisition is crucial to understand the citizenship-integration nexus beyond policies, institutions and legal norms. Empirical findings have been structured along three themes that are considered relevant for integration: well-being, sense of belonging, and trust. Analysis is based on 50 semi-structured interviews conducted in Italy and Spain with migrants from Ecuador, Brazil, Morocco, the Philippines, and Romania. Italy and Spain have been chosen for comparison as two countries with a similar migration history but different citizenship regimes. Results show that in both countries citizenship acquisition is related with increasing well-being and sense of trust, while the sense of belonging overlaps with a sense of non-belonging linked to discriminatory attitudes perceived in everyday practices, despite the legal inclusion through citizenship acquisition.