This paper investigates how immigrants in the United States respond
to changes in dual citizenship laws in their origin country. In
the 1990s Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Costa Rica
and Brazil revoked the previous rule that took away nationality of
the origin country from those who became citizens of another country.
Using data from the 1990 and 2000 censuses, I find a sizable and statistically
significant effect of granting dual citizenship on the probability
of naturalization in regressions that include controls for other factors
(such as welfare reform) that changed the incentives to naturalize over
the 1990s. Immigrants recently granted dual nationality rights also
experience employment gains, but no earnings gains. The effects of
dual citizenship on labor outcomes, when interpreted through naturalization,
are consistent with American citizenship providing greater
employment opportunities, and a more rapid wage growth that might
not have shown its effects yet among recently naturalized immigrants.