More than half of the immigrant population is considering naturalization in the future

Wish to apply for citizenship in the future (Source: Migration-Mobility Survey 2018)

53% of all the respondents intend to apply for naturalization, whereby this proportion includes some 4% of those who have already applied, while 18% do not plan to do so, and 28% do not have an opinion on the subject. The proportion of people interested in Swiss citizenship is slightly higher than in the 2016 survey. There are significant differences between the surveyed nationalities. Benefiting from the free movement of persons, immigrants from an EU/EFTA member state show a rather moderate interest in naturalization. On the other hand, nationals from the rest of Europe and the African continent are most frequently interested in this formal action, since more than 70% of them intend to apply for naturalization. Further analysis of why immigrants want to obtain Swiss nationality show that being able to vote and thus feeling part of Swiss society are important drivers of naturalization.