| Description |
The civic integration policy index (CIVIX) addresses civic integration requirements in EU-15. It analyses three target civic knowledge areas (country knowledge, language and values) for entry, settlement and citizenship acquisition.
The scale of the CIVIX is 0 to 6: a high score indicates ‘thick’ citizenship content. A low score represents ‘thin’ citizenship content, with minimal or easy content requirements for obtaining status.
The coding of requirements takes into account four distinct dimensions: the category of third-country nationals accountable, specifically family unification; whether civic conditions are required for entry, settlement or citizenship; the number of requirements across the civic targets of
country knowledge, language and values, including integration courses, tests, contracts, oath ceremonies and interviews; and, finally, the severity of requirements along the path to citizenship (for example, a ‘high’ level of language proficiency or cost). This dimension is also reflected in point valuation, where more points are assigned to language and knowledge requirements at the settlement stage than at naturalisation, where a longer period of residency engenders greater linguistic and
knowledge competence.
In order to understand the ‘depth’ of current citizenship content and the degree of policy change over time, values were assigned for each of the 17 countries in 1997 and 2009 respectively.
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