The emergence of protective citizenship in the USA: naturalization among Dominican immigrants in the post-1996 welfare reform era

Despite the increase in scholarly attention to citizenship, few studies have examined how immigrants acquire formal citizenship through naturalization. We employ a qualitative, longitudinal case-study approach to examine whether immigrants naturalize in the U.S. or not, and how they understand naturalization and citizenship in the post-1996 Welfare Reform period. We found that for many immigrants, U.S. citizenship does not necessarily signify permanent settlement or incorporation in the U.S. Indeed, U.S. citizenship allowed older immigrants to continue a pattern of transnational residence, challenging the association between citizenship and permanent incorporation in a single locale and citizenship and integration. Our findings challenge both the national and post-national perspectives and argues for a transnational view of citizenship.