Finding 2: Voting is a Motivation, But Not Always a Catalyst

Civic engagement is an appealing benefit for LPRs, but they often naturalize for more practical reasons.

Voting is a particularly intriguing motivator because of how often it comes up in surveys as a primary factor in the decision to naturalize.¹ Our interviewees didn't bring up voting or civic engagement with the same enthusiasm. Of all interviewees who were naturalized or applying, voting never came up as a naturalization catalyst and only rarely came up as a primary motive. Many interviewees brought up the ability to vote against the current administration as the catalyst to naturalize — this was usually first as a means of protection against deportation, and secondarily as protection through the ability to vote in future elections. Two individuals who didn't fear anti-immigration policies brought up voting as their primary motivation, and both let many elections go by without naturalizing after reaching eligibility.

This doesn’t mean that an ability to vote doesn’t affect naturalization applications. There are application spikes that occur during Presidential election years, which could be due in part to increased messaging and outreach. This also doesn't mean that civic engagement isn't important to immigrants — quite the opposite. It is often mentioned as a secondary benefit to more practical issues.

"It was actually in the context of voting […] I want to say it was second term for Clinton, I wanted to [naturalize]. I was thinking about it so that I could then participate in the next election. […] How do I put this, it's not like you don't think about it at least once a year kind of thing if you know what I mean. It's always in the back of your mind, should I do this, shouldn't I and it's early in our marriage. It was about 'okay I should do this' because we're gonna have kids maybe. Then we weren't gonna have kids by ‘97, we knew that." Interviewee 59

“Some of it was laziness of knowing that I could work and I don't need citizenship yet for any of those particular reasons. Some of it was life chaos moving up here, having a lot going on relationally, and just not prioritizing it. I always knew I wanted to become a citizen. I wanted to be able to vote. […] With the administration doing what it was doing and realizing I could not travel or did not feel safe traveling and being able to come back easily, that helped push me towards, ‘All right. Let's get this process going.’" Interviewee 4

Voting provides an effective motivator but doesn't rise to the surface when making the calculus to go through the onerous naturalization process. This may require rethinking on outreach communicated by nonprofits and government organizations that wish to assist in naturalization — moving away from civic-minded benefits to more practical benefits of citizenship, like the ability to apply for and receive a U.S. passport.