Woodrow-Lafield, Karen A. 2005. “Modeling the Transition to U.S. Citizenship: Mexican and Dominican Immigrants,” Presented at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Fordham University, January 28.

Becoming a U.S. citizen may be one indicator of assimilation although the opposing view is that naturalization may result from self-protective behavior in securing access to public benefits and better health access. This presentation reports on completion of naturalization by 1996 for Mexican and Dominican immigrants and the role of characteristics at admission based on hazards modeling for duration to naturalization. Immigrants with employment sponsorship were more likely to naturalize quickly. Second, immigrants having fewer family members in the United States, possibly even the first to immigrate in their consanguineal family network, were more likely to naturalize. Third, propensity to naturalize differs by gender and across origin, pointing to cultural contexts, gender roles, demographic diversity, and social capital. Among Mexican and Dominican immigrants, women naturalized sooner than men, and this may denote women’s role in settlement and perpetuation of migration.