Taking Austria as an example, this article sheds light on the debate about economic criteria for naturalization by investigating the main proponents of economic constraints to citizenship, their arguments and the transposition of these preferences into citizenship laws. Austria constitutes a typical case of strongly developed economic requirements for naturalization and high naturalization fees. In line with recent scholarship on immigration and citizenship policy development, a focus is put on the role of different political parties in shaping the way boundaries of membership are negotiated (Bonjour, 2013; Akkerman, 2015). Immigration and citizenship were politicized issues inAustria in the past two decades, leading to several policy reforms under different governments, in which economic criteria for naturalization were amended (Howard, 2009; Stadlmair, 2014). There-fore, Austria serves as a typical case (Seawright and Gerring, 2008) to investigate how economic criteria for naturalization are addressed by political actors.

Publication details and link to source: Jeremias Stadlmair, Party Positions on Economic Criteria for Naturalization in Austria, International Migration, 2017.