Naturalizzazione in Francia: condizione di maggiore integrazione?

The examination of the dialectic relationship between naturalization (legal-administrative procedure that entitles a foreigner to become French citizen) and integration in France offers several interesting observations for new, or more recent, immigration countries like Italy. The acquisition of the citizenship contributes in a significant way to the integration process or vice versa is it a simple change of status? Among the wide fan of different integration indexes, we mainly focus our analysis on the insertion in the labour market in consideration of the significance of the work as a socialization factor useful for foreigners to reinterpretate the whole system of social values. The comparative analysis of the integration level in the labour market of three groups: foreigners, French by acquisition and French by birth, is justified by the observation that the “new arrived” are socially integrated in the destination country when they are able to take part to the social life in the same way or with the same intensity of the autochthonous. Nevertheless we should always remember that even if it represents a very important step in the long and difficult integration process, the naturalization cannot automatically ensure its full achievement. Others and, in our opinion, more important factors are the length of the stay in the new society and the age of becoming a citizen.