Immigrant naturalization rate hits 25-year high

SAN FRANCISCO – The number of immigrants who became American citizens reached an all-time high in 2005, and the percentage of those who did so reached its highest level in a quarter-century, according to a study released Wednesday.

Growth in legal immigration, as well as a greater tendency among foreign-born residents to embrace U.S. citizenship, accounts for the trend, the Pew Hispanic Center said in its report based on federal census and immigration data.

The nation’s 12.8 million naturalized citizens made up more than half of all legal immigrants living in the United States two years ago, compared with a low of 38 percent in 1990, Pew researchers found. The percentage of immigrants becoming citizens in 2005 was about the same as in 1980.

“Today’s immigrants are interested in becoming U.S. citizens, and that’s showing up in the increased percentage of those who are eligible taking advantage of it,” said Jeffrey Passel, the study’s lead researcher. “It’s reached a point where the majority of those eligible to naturalize have done so.”

The analysis showed that immigrants who qualify for citizenship are applying more quickly than in the past. A decade ago, about two-thirds of the eligible immigrants who had been in the United States for more than 20 years were naturalized. Now, about three-quarters of such long-term residents have become citizens.

Experts said the reasons why the naturalization rate has gone up are probably as varied as the individuals who apply for citizenship.

Some of the theories proposed in the study and by others in the field include uncertainty generated by immigration reform and stricter national security policies, interest in voting and other benefits of citizenship, and an increased acceptance of dual nationality in Mexico and other countries.

Although European immigrants are among those most likely to seek citizenship, naturalization rates have been rising faster for other expatriates, the nonpartisan Pew Center found.

The number of naturalized citizens from the Middle East, for example, grew 156 percent from 1995 to 2005, with the most rapid growth occurring after 2001. With their countries of origin in political turmoil and facing suspicion after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, they may be more eager to secure their rights and ability to remain here, experts said.

Even as naturalization has become more attractive, the number of immigrants without authorization to be in the United States also grew sharply during the last decade, according to the Pew report.

The study estimates undocumented immigrants now make up nearly a third of the total immigrant population, compared with one-fifth in 1995.