Sweden announces strict new citizenship policy - including proving you demonstrate 'honest living'
15 January 2025, 12:33
Sweden has announced strict requirements for migrants seeking citizenship - including respecting Swedish values and demonstrating 'honest living'
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Sweden has unveiled its new requirements for citizenship, as migrants will have to prove they demonstrate 'honest living' to stay in the country.
Migrants are required to take a test on Swedish language, and a test on Sweden's society and values.
The government are also hiking the required time spent in Sweden to obtain citizenship, from five years to eight.
Swedish Migration Minister, Johan Forssell, took to Instagram to say "Citizenship must be earned, not be handed out unconditionally".
He then told a press conference that the new citizenship rules will bring the nation together under "a common Swedish identity".
The new policy will make it much harder for migrants who have committed a crime, or has unpaid debits, to be granted Swedish nationality.
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Forssell said that it is "crucial" to "always be very clear about the values that must apply in Sweden".
He said: "Family is important but it does not stand above the law. There is equality between the sexes.
"You can marry whoever you want.
"Girls and boys have the right to swim and play football. If you don't accept that, Sweden is not the country for you."
The human rights organisation Civil Rights Defenders has been critical of Sweden's new policy.
John Stauffer, the head of Civil Rights Defenders, told AFP: "Research shows that tougher requirements for citizenship do not increase the incentives for integration, but rather contribute to the exclusion of a growing group of people who find themselves in the country for a long time without the basic rights of citizenship."
Forssell added: "This is particularly important at a time when Sweden has welcomed hundreds of thousands of people from many parts of the world in recent years."
The minister said that the country granted 6250 asylum-related residence permits in 2024, citing the Migration Agency.
9645 people applied for asylum in Sweden in 2024 - down by 42% since 2022.
During the 2015 migrant crisis, Sweden took in 163,000 asylum seekers, which is the highest number per capita in the EU.
Forssell claimed that the influx of migrants, since the 2015 migrant crisis, has made it difficult for the country to integrate, causing pressure on essential services.
