Mexico Launches Campaign to Promote 'Dual Citizenship' Among Millions of Legal Immigrants Dolia Estevez - Forbes
go to original November 13, 2015

New U.S. citizens recite the oath of allegiance during a naturalization ceremony in New York. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

With little fanfare, the Mexican government has launched a broad-ranging “new strategy” to encourage millions of Mexican immigrants in the U.S. who are eligible for U.S. citizenship through naturalization to empower themselves by seeking dual citizenship.

“The new strategy of promoting dual nationality … will allow our citizens in the United States and people of Mexican origin to obtain significant benefits on economic, social and political matters, as well as to strengthen their ties to both countries,” the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Relations said in late October.

Ambassador Sandra Fuentes-Berain, Mexico’s General Counsel in New York, explained that the advantages that U.S. citizenship by naturalization offer include “welfare benefits and healthcare, as well as voting and exerting influence over decisions by elected officials that affect their everyday lives.”

According to the Pew Research Center, Mexico is the country with the largest population eligible for obtaining U.S. citizenship through naturalization. In 2013, there were an estimated 5.4 million legal immigrants from Mexico who were eligible to become American citizens. However, the rate of naturalization (i.e. obtaining citizenship) - 36% - is only half that of legal immigrants from all other countries combined, the Pew Research Center observed.

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