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Governing access to nationality through paperwork: The discretionary uses of documentation for naturalisation in Belgium, France and the United Kingdom

Sredanovic, Djordje
; 
Fargues, Émilien
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Affiliation
University of Chester; Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines; Centre for Political Research, Paris; Collège de France
EPub Date
Publication Date
2024-11-03
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Social and Political Science
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Abstract
In this paper, we examine the discretionary uses of documentation in the implementation of naturalisation through a comparative perspective focusing on Belgium, France and the United Kingdom. We investigate the organisational and professional factors that are likely to impact variation in the uses of discretion based on documentation. Belgium, France and the United Kingdom represent three interesting case studies involving different actors with different mandates. In Belgium, municipal agents are responsible for a mandatory check of applicants' documents before transferring the naturalisation application to public prosecutors. While only the latter have the mandate to check that the legal requirements are met, most municipal agents are involved in the examination of the requirements. In France, before the digitisation of nationality acquisition in 2023, the initial acceptance of an application involved prefectural agents who had the power to refuse application registration if the documentation was deemed insufficient or ‘non‐compliant’. In the United Kingdom, ‘Nationality Checking Services’ (NCS) were available until 2019 in local register offices for an optional check of the application before the transfer to the Home Office, which remains the decision‐making body on nationality applications. As United Kingdom law regulates strictly immigration advice, NCSs were often unwilling to express themselves on the chances of an application. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork consisting of interviews with implementation agents in the three countries and observations of their interactions with applicants, this paper contributes to shedding light on what drives variations in the governance of access to nationality through paperwork.
Citation
Sredanovic, D., & Fargues, É. (2024). Governing access to nationality through paperwork: The discretionary uses of documentation for naturalisation in Belgium, France and the United Kingdom. Social Policy & Administration, vol(issue), pages. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.13098
Publisher
Wiley
Journal
Social Policy & Administration
Research Unit
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10034/629105
DOI
10.1111/spol.13098
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Type
Article
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Description
© 2024 The Author(s). Social Policy & Administration published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Series/Report no.
ISSN
0144-5596
EISSN
1467-9515
ISBN
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Sponsors
Fondation nationale des sciences politiques. Grant Number: Doctoral grant 2014-2017 and Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
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https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/spol.13098