From Latin American Immigrant to "Hispanic" Citizen: The Role of Social Capital in Seeking U.S. Citizenship

Objective. Burgeoning citizenship rates in the past five years are attributable to an increased propensity to naturalize among more recent cohorts from developing countries, particularly from Latin America. We evaluate the intention to naturalize for a key subgroup of Latin American immigrants: those who adjusted to legal status via the main legalization program of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). Methods. We merge 3,117 responses from the 1989 and 1992 wave of the Legalized Person Survey (LPS) with a data set we have constructed on characteristics of the eighty-three Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in which the respondents resided. We then estimate the probability of an LPS respondent expressing the intention to seek U.S. citizenship. Results. Our analyses indicate that social capital repertoires, measured as linkages to a variety of home and host country institutions, have significant effects on the likelihood that Latin American immigrants intend to become U.S. citizens, with capital and social investments in sending communities reducing those intentions, and capital and social investments anchored in the United States enhancing naturalization aspirations. Conclusions. While financial and social investments in the home country reduce the odds of intending to naturalize for IRCA beneficiaries, financial and social connections to the United States are substantial and facilitate the plan to become U.S. citizens. These aspirations are further facilitated by the ways in which Latin American immigrants are situated in geographic space in metropolitan U.S. communities.