Citizenship: A Wise Investment for Cities

Citizenship: A wise investment for cities represents the first stage in what will be an ongoing research effort by Cities for Citizenship (C4C), a collaborative project co-chaired by the mayors of Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, to promote the naturalization of recent immigrants.

Funded by Citi Community Development, C4C will help municipal governments start or develop citizenship programs in other communities.  This report quantifies the economic gains to be realized by cities and regions by using Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York as test cases. Controlling for industry and occupation and assuming that half the eligible population will naturalize over a period of 5 to 10 years, the researchers report that the increased earnings of naturalized immigrants will lead to additional economic activity over ten years of between $2.2 and $4.8 billion in the city of New York, $1.6 and $2.8 billion in Los Angeles, and between $1.2 and $1.8 billion in Chicago. The report concludes with some recommendations for cities interested in using naturalization as an economic development and community-building strategy.

Download it here or view it online.

Get more information from USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration.