Taking Canada as a widely envied and imitated example of liberal, “difference-blind” economic immigration, in this paper, I examine the permeability, constraints, and symbolic meaning of the different requirements of the naturalization process from the perspective of those who have undergone the process. Based on interviews with recently naturalized Canadians, my study reveals that the three steps of the application process – filing the application, studying the citizenship guide and sitting the test, attending the citizenship ceremony and swearing the citizenship oath – constitute mostly blurred boundaries for skilled and highly educated immigrants, with occasional bright boundaries related to management flaws, classed naturalization, and cultural biases. Specifically, immigrants endowed with valued forms of human capital are naturalizing fast and easily even if they are members of racial, ethnic or religious minorities. This underscores the strength of multiculturalism as national identity and ethos of societal integration. However, the attainment of citizenship in the multicultural nation does not come quasi-automatically as a right for everyone after years of lawful residency. Rather, it is granted as an earned privilege only to those who demonstrate the successful mastery of the skills and mindset of middle-class professionals. Since naturalization now operates along the same econocentric logic that governs immigrant selection through the points system, individuals admitted through non-economic streams, such as refugees and immigrants in the family class are increasingly struggling with the naturalization process. This raises questions about the implicit biases and new fault lines of seemingly difference-blind middle-class nation-building through immigration.

本文以加拿大作为自由，“差异盲”经济移民的被广泛羡慕和模仿的例子，在本文中，我从经历过移民的人的角度考察了入籍过程中不同要求的渗透性，约束条件和象征意义。过程。根据对最近入籍加拿大人的采访，我的研究表明，申请过程的三个步骤-提交申请，研究公民资格指南和参加考试，参加公民仪式以及宣誓公民身份誓词-构成了技术和知识分子的模糊界限受过良好教育的移民，偶尔与管理缺陷，分类入籍和文化偏见相关的明晰界限。特别，拥有宝贵人力资本形式的移民，即使是种族，族裔或宗教少数群体的成员，也正在迅速而轻松地归化。这强调了多元文化主义作为国家认同和社会融合精神的力量。但是，在经过多年合法居留之后，在多元文化国家中获得公民身份并不是每个人的准自动权利。相反，只有那些成功地掌握了中产阶级专业人员的技能和思维方式的人才能将其作为获得的特权。由于现在的归化遵循以经济为中心的逻辑，即通过积分系统控制移民选择，因此个人通过非经济来源被接纳，家庭阶级的难民和移民之类的人正在为入籍程序而挣扎。这引发了关于通过移民看似盲目的中产阶级国家建设的隐性偏见和新的断层线的疑问。