---
title: "V. Citizenship"
description: "Citizenship is a marker of attachment to society, and registering to vote even more so. Of foreign-born Hispanics, those who have become naturalized citizens are more likely to speak English very well or pretty well than those who are not citizens (52% versus 25%). At the other extreme, nearly three-quarters (73%) of non-citizens say they […]"
date: "2007-11-29"
authors:
  - name: "Shirin Hakimzadeh"
    job_title: "Guest Contributor"
  - name: "D’Vera Cohn"
    job_title: "Former Senior Writer/Editor"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/dvera-cohn/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2007/11/29/v-citizenship/"
---

# V. Citizenship

![](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2007/11/2007-english-14.png)

Citizenship is a marker of attachment to society, and registering to vote even more so. Of foreign-born Hispanics, those who have become naturalized citizens are more likely to speak English very well or pretty well than those who are not citizens (52% versus 25%). At the other extreme, nearly three-quarters (73%) of non-citizens say they speak just a little or no English compared with 46% of naturalized citizens. (Figure 13)

Among Latino registered voters born in other countries, 57% say they speak English very well (42%) or pretty well (15%). They rate their reading ability only slightly lower.

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**Next:** [VI. Bilingual Adults](https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2007/11/29/vi-bilingual-adults.md)