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CITIZENSHIP

Swedish government to launch inquiry into revoking citizenship

Sweden's government will soon launch an inquiry into changing the Swedish constitution so that people can be stripped of their citizenship if they, for instance, are shown to be "a threat to Sweden's security" or have obtained citizenship on false grounds. 

Published: 5 May 2023 12:29 CEST
Swedish government to launch inquiry into revoking citizenship
Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard and Linda Lindberg, group parliamentary leader of the Sweden Democrats update the media on work to tighten citizenship requirements: Caisa Rasmussen/TT

Sweden’s migration minister Maria Malmer Stenergard announced the plan at a press conference held on Friday with Linda Lindberg, the group parliamentary leader for the far-right Sweden Democrats, to update the press on the parties’ progress on tightening citizenship requirements. 

“The issue of making it possible to actually revoke Swedish citizenship requires changes to the constitution,” Lindberg said in the press conference. “That’s something we need to look at.” 

READ ALSO: What’s the current status of Sweden’s planned migration reforms?

She said that Sweden’s Justice Minister would soon publish a directive setting up the constitutional inquiry and appointing someone to lead it. 

Malmer Stenergard said that the government also hoped to bring in a new rule preventing those between the age of 15 and 18 who have committed a serious crime from becoming Swedish citizens, which she said filled in a gap in the current law she found “deeply concerning, problematic and downright offensive”. 

“This is what meant that the person convicted of the murder at the Delta Gym was able to become a Swedish citizen while he was a suspect,” she said.

The Delta Gym case refers to a shooting at a gym in Stockholm in 2022 which resulted in the death of 54 year old Fredrik Andersson, an innocent bystander who was trying to stop the attack. A 17-year-old was convicted of the murder in March 2023.

The real target of the attack was a gang member who was at the gym at the same time.

Malmer Stenergard said that the government also wanted to make it easier to reject applications to renounce Swedish citizenship, which she said would, for example, prevent parents from discarding their Swedish citizenship so they could take their children out of Sweden. 

The two said the government also planned to launch another inquiry in the summer which would look at further ways of tightening citizenship requirements. 

The measures the second inquiry will consider include increasing the income or other financial requirements for those seeking citizenship, and also tightening the demands for “honourable moral conduct”. 

The second inquiry will also be asked to suggest what from of ceremonial oath of loyalty should be the final stage in the citizenship process. 

Member comments

  1. Absolutely brilliant news.Anyone with dual citizenship who commits a serious crime should have their Swedish citizenship revoked

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CITIZENSHIP

Sweden launches inquiry into tougher citizenship rules

Sweden's government has launched an inquiry into tightening the requirements for Swedish citizenship, with the number of years of residency likely to be increased from five to eight.

Published: 8 September 2023 10:08 CEST
Sweden launches inquiry into tougher citizenship rules

Sweden’s migration minister, Maria Malmer Stenergard, told the TT newswire in an interview that the current five-year residency required to qualify for citizenship was shorter than in most other countries. 

“We stick out compared to other, comparable countries,” she said. “Overall, this is a question of security. The security police have warned that this time is too short for them to have time to identify future security risks.” 

The government has appointed a judge, Kirsi Laakso Utvik, to lead the inquiry into toughening citizenship requirements. 

According to a press release, Utvik is being asked to carry out the following tasks: 

  • propose requirements for a longer stay in Sweden to become eligible for membership
  • propose what knowledge about Sweden as a society, and about Swedish culture should be required to be eligible for membership 
  • propose extra requirements that applicants have a heder­ligt levnadssätt, or “upstanding way of life”
  • propose what requirements for self-sufficiency prospective citizens should have to meet 
  • take a position on whether a citizenship interview, oath of loyalty, or other ceremony should be instituted as the final point in the citizenship process 
  • decide on whether the procedure for considering the release of children from Swedish citizenship should be changed and submit the necessary constitutional proposals.

Stenergard told TT that the new requirements were likely to judge whether applicants had an “upstanding way of life” on the extent to which they were suspected of involvement in crime. 

“This will mean considering which acts a person is suspected of or convicted of and where we should set the limits on which people are eligible to become Swedish citizens,” she said.

It will take some time for any changes to the law proposed by the inquiry to come into force.

Utvik has been given until September 30th 2024 to present the conclusions of her inquiry, with a draft law then scheduled to be presented to parliament in the autumn of 2025.

It is likely that some new requirements for citizenship would then come into force at the start of 2026. 

According to the press release, Utvik has been asked not to make any proposals which would require changes to Sweden’s constitutional laws. 

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