Territorial boundaries are increasingly less relevant as an organizing principle of social interaction, and individuals' identities are increasingly characterized by fluid, multiple attachments that stretch across frontiers. But they see these developments as entirely negative. Dual nationality, these critics assert, is like bigamy. Like a bigamous spouse, a person with divided loyalties and commitments is likely to have weaker ties to each. They will shirk their obligations to both objects of loyalty, cheating their fellow citizens in the process.
Citizenship is left devoid of substance.
If we look at naturalization rates for immigrants in the United States, it is clear that immigrants today are opting to naturalize at rates equal to or higher than that of immigrants in the past. Naturalizations rates in the United States tripled between 1993 and 1996. The Citizenship USA program was designed to encourage naturalization and reduce the backlog in the naturalization process. However, neither of these programs sufficiently explains the increase in naturalization among immigrants in the United States following 1994 Increased naturalization is largely explained by the 1996 welfare reform legislation, which played a major role in nudging legal permanent residents to naturalize as U.S. citizens. Social services, the reasoning went, were not intended for non-citizens, even if these individuals resided permanently in the United States.