Integration through acquisition of citizenship has become an important topic in many EU Member States in recent years, as the number of new migrants arriving in the EU has increased in recent years. The new EMN Synthesis Report published on this topic shows that citizenship is seen by the EU Member States as either the culmination of the integration process or as facilitating the integration process.
The report provides a comparative overview of recent trends, frameworks and good practices from 24 EU Member States and Norway on the acquisition of citizenship for third-country nationals. It describes how national policies evolved over the past five years in relation to the acquisition of citizenship, what are the criteria and procedures in place, how costly and long is the process, what type of support do Member States provide to third-country nationals wishing to acquire citizenship and how do Member States see the acquisition of citizenship in relation to integration of migrants into a host society. The report also informs on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the processing of applications for citizenship. More information in the video.