Granting Birthright Citizenship – A Door Opener for Immigrant Children's Educational Participation and Success?

Does birthright citizenship boost immigrant children's educational participation andsuccess? We address this question relying on a reform of the German naturalization lawin 1999 that entitled children born after January 1, 2000 to birthright citizenship. Weisolate the impact of birthright citizenship by comparing children born shortly beforeand shortly after the cutoff in years of policy change and years in which no policychange took place. Results based on administrative data indicate positive effects acrossall educational levels – preschool, primary school and secondary school – which, however,fade out over time. The underlying mechanism seems to be parental decisions and notimproved (evaluations of) children's skills.