What is the Value of U.S. Citizenship?

More than 7 million legal residents who are eligible to become U.S. citizens each year, essentially green card visa holders, choose against doing so.

They decide for whatever reason that the benefits of citizenship (voting rights, potential for government employment, ability to bring their families here) are not worth the costs, starting with the $675 application fee. If you are an expert in marketing, as is Harvard Business School’s John Quelch, this fact presents a unique opportunity to view the issue through the lens of pricing strategy in the public sector.

This is a timely issue because immigration officials are thinking of raising application prices for citizenship from the current $675. The last time prices increased, in 2007, applications dropped 50 percent.

Let’s consider citizenship a U.S. product offered in competition with other countries. This country, made strong by immigrants-become-citizens, has an interest in attracting bright and hard working people to our shores. But 90 percent of our 8 million target customers annually aren’t buying the product. A business facing this same issue of underwhelming demand would consider a range of options to boost sales including price cuts (the idea of a price increase would be laughable), better marketing of benefits, promotions, loans, and, in the case of educational products, scholarships.

What should the U.S. do?

“Should the rest of us care?,” Quelch asks on his Harvard Business Publishing blog. “Should we, as a nation of immigrants, subsidize the cost of processing applications in an economic recession to motivate more qualified but resource-strapped residents to apply? Would our democracy benefit if more legal residents joined the ranks of voters, became fully engaged in community life, and put down stronger roots? How can we quantify these benefits to justify a price below cost? Or should we leave the price as is but market the benefits of citizenship more effectively?”

[source: bnet]

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