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SWEDISH LANGUAGE

EXPLAINED: Will a Swedish language requirement help reduce segregation?

Language tests for permanent residency permits or Swedish citizenship are a hot topic in this year's election, with five of Sweden's eight parliamentary parties in favour of introducing tests. But, do they actually aid integration?

Published: 26 August 2022 15:38 CEST
EXPLAINED: Will a Swedish language requirement help reduce segregation?
Photo: Jessica Gow/TT

Do language requirements reduce segregation?

According to Forsberg Lundell, a language researcher and professor in French at Stockholm University, it’s not that simple.

“Language requirements as part of a well-thought out language policy can have an effect in the long-term, but it’s not something which changes things from one day to the other,” she told state broadcaster SVT. 

There’s also limited research on the actual effects of language requirements.

One example of research which has been done, is how easy it is to access the labour market in Sweden compared to Denmark, one of the countries in Europe with the strictest language requirements.

“There, researchers have been able to see that there is no real difference despite the fact that requirements for citizenship are so different,” she said.

Learning a language does make it easier to get a job, which can, in turn, combat segregation, but a language requirement does not automatically encourage more people to learn Swedish.

“It’s not certain that people actually learn a language because of a requirement,” she said. “That’s based on the individual’s qualities, level of education and opportunities to interact and get an education.”

Can language tests actually be a barrier to integration?

Pieter Bevelander, professor of international migration and ethnic relations at Malmö University told SVT that it’s not possible to say whether there is any connection between language requirements and integration.

Instead, he said, it can be seen as another barrier for immigrants in getting Swedish citizenship.

“On the other hand, you can see that people who learn the language have better opportunities on the labour market, but it’s very individual,” he said.

Have language tests worked anywhere else?

Lundell from Stockholm University mentioned Canada as one example where language requirements have been successful. She believes that it could be to do with the fact that the country accepts more labour migrants than refugees, and that these are matched to the labour market, meaning that many are capable of completing language courses and meeting requirements.

“Then, there’s also a thought in Canada that multiculturalism is an important value, but that only works if you have a shared language,” she told SVT.

“That’s why they have invested in very clear language policy.”

Which parties are in favour of the proposal?

The Liberals, Sweden Democrats, Moderates, Christian Democrats and Social Democrats are in favour of introducing a language requirement, with the Liberals (then known as Folkpartiet), proposing the requirement two decades ago in 2002.

Back then, the Liberals were criticised for introducing the policy, which now seems to be supported by a majority in parliament.

Only the Centre Party, Left Party and Green Party are now against the measure.

Member comments

  1. I have heard multiple times from Swedes that people don’t like hearing Swedish spoken with foreign accents, especially if if it sound like a non western accent. I myself much rather enjoy speaking fluent English and passing as a cool tourist than trying to speak Swedish and be treated as a stupid immigrant/refugee although I am an engineer with sought after skills. That leaves me with zero desire to speak a language whose native speakers dislike hearing it with a foreign accent.

    On the other hand, while staying in Germany and mumbling some basic German, I was being taken much more seriously. My German colleagues just thought that, ok this guy speaks German so we continue the conversation in German. No visible judgement what so ever. Here in Sweden I just get a lot of unnecessary “vad sa du?” Followed by disgusted looks. So go figure.

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For members

LEARNING SWEDISH

How positive are Swedes towards foreign accents?

Swedes respond most positively to people speaking Swedish with English, Finnish and German accents, according to a new study from Sweden's Institute for Language and Folklore that took an in-depth look at a dozen foreign accents.

Published: 2 May 2024 15:29 CEST
How positive are Swedes towards foreign accents?

The study asked Swedes to identify the accents of 12 different people speaking Swedish, before rating the speakers on their trustworthiness, friendliness, ambition, confidence, appeal and whether they were ordentlig, a Swedish word which describes something similar to being “proper” or an upstanding citizen. 

These qualities were then ranked from one (not at all) to six (a lot), before being combined into a total score for each speaker.

Respondents were not told if they had guessed the accent of a speaker correctly or incorrectly before ranking them.

Speakers of Swedish with an English accent had the highest score on this scale: 3.86, although this is still low considering that the highest possible score was six. The English speaker spoke British English and has lived in Sweden for 41 years.

Finns came just behind on 3.85, with Germans coming third with a score of 3.79.

These three accents were also considered to be the easiest to understand, no matter how strong or weak the accents were considered to be.

In fourth place with a score of 3.62 was a female speaker with a förortsaccent, which is not an accent at all but rather a dialect of Swedish spoken in the often immigrant-heavy suburbs (förorter) of large cities. Although some aspects of förortssvenska have been influenced by languages spoken by people who have immigrated to these parts of Sweden from abroad, many speakers of förortssvenska were born in Sweden and have lived their entire lives here.

Next up were Somali, Arabic and Turkish accents, with scores of 3.32, 3.29 and 3.24 respectively. Polish, Persian and Spanish accents followed with scores of 3.23, 3.21 and 3.15, with a Bosnian accent the lowest placing foreign accent at 3.06.

The lowest result in the study overall was for a male speaker with a förortsaccent, with a score of just 2.95.

Women ranked more highly than men

Interestingly, female speakers made up four of the top five, although the most positively rated accent (English) was a male speaker. There was also only one woman in the bottom five (the Spanish speaker) suggesting that Swedes are more positive towards women with foreign accents than men.

The respondents were also asked to guess what level of education the speakers had, where they could choose between junior high school or equivalent (grundskola), senior high school or equivalent (gymnasium), post-secondary school education that was not university-level, and university-level studies.

Accents from closer countries scored more highly

As a general rule, Swedes assumed that people from countries which are closer geographically had a higher level of education than those who were from further away. English came top again, followed by German and Finnish, while a male speaker of förortssvenska came last, with the speaker with a Bosnian accent coming second to last.

In general, speakers of the accents which scored highly in terms of positive associations were also assumed to have a higher level of education, and the same can be said for the accents which had the most negative ratings.

There is a caveat, however. The positively-rated accents – English, Finnish and German – were those which speakers were best at identifying. Almost 90 percent of Swedes in the study recognised an Finnish accent, with just under 85 percent recognising an English accent and slightly under 70 percent recognising a German one.

This means that in these cases, respondents were judging these specific accents, and may have been influenced by prior contact with speakers of Swedish from these countries such as friends, coworkers or public figures, or commonly held assumptions about them.

That was also the case for the male förortsaccent, which was the fourth-most recognised accent – just over 40 percent of listeners identified it correctly.

For the other accents, listeners were unsure of their guesses, even those who guessed correctly. Only one in twenty listeners could recognise the Turkish accent, for example.

This means that assumptions made about speakers with less easily identified accents may be due to other factors than their nationality, such as the strength of their accent and their gender.

Indeed, the most common incorrect guess when a listener could not identify an accent was Arabic, often bringing with it negative ratings in the other categories.

Political views also make a difference

The study also looked at whether certain traits or beliefs in the listening Swedes affected how they ranked each speaker.

Men rated each speaker more negatively than the average score given by all listeners, while women rated them more positively.

There were also clear differences when it comes to politics, with right-wing voters more likely to have a negative opinion of foreign accents.

Listeners who identified as Sweden Democrats or Moderates rated almost all accents significantly lower than the average (Sweden Democrats rated English and Finnish roughly the same as average listeners, and Moderates rated German accents roughly the same as the average).

Christian Democrats and Liberals rated the accents similar to the average result for all listeners, while left-bloc voters belonging to the Centre Party, Social Democrats, Green Party and Left Party rated almost all accents significantly higher than the average. 

The groups with the most positive attitude towards people speaking Swedish with an accent were women, the highly educated, voters in the left-wing bloc and, to a lesser extent, older people and people who earn less than 25,000 kronor a month.

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