Citizenship in the Nordic Countries

Abstract

This report reviews the historical development of citizenship law and the current citizenship regime in the five Nordic countries. It also presents statistics on the acquisition and loss of citizenship in each country over the past 10-15 years, provides a comparative analysis of the divergent development of citizenship policies in the Nordic region in the 2000s, and offers some reflections and recommendations on the future of citizenship in the Nordic region. The report was commissioned by The Nordic Council of Ministers and the project has been headed by the Institute for Social Research (ISF), in cooperation with the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). We thank The Nordic Council of Ministers for the financial support and the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security for their administrative efforts. We also thank the Swedish Migration Agency, the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration, the Icelandic Ministry of Justice, the Icelandic Directorate of Immigration and the Finnish Immigration Service for providing statistics on the acquisition and loss of citizenship in the respective countries. Finally, we thank Liza Reisel, research director at ISF, for valuable comments on a previous version of the report, and Jon Haakon Hustad, librarian at ISF, for helpful assistance in conducting the literature review. The report is a joint effort. It was written by the head of the project and senior researcher at ISF, Arnfinn H. Midtbøen, in close collaboration with Simon Roland Birkvad at ISF and Marta Bivand Erdal at PRIO. Midtbøen was responsible for writing Chapters 1 and 6, Birkvad for Chapters 4 and 5, and Erdal for Chapter 2 as well as the section on extraterritorial citizenship in Chapter 4. Chapter 3 was written in collaboration between Midtbøen and Birkvad and the concluding chapter in collaboration between Midtbøen and Erdal.

Philosophies of integration? Elite views on citizenship policies in Scandinavia

“…Sweden has the lowest residence requirement, five years, whereas Norway requires seven out of the previous 10 years. All three countries apply shorter waiting period for spouses of citizens, Nordic citizens, former citizens as well as stateless persons (Midtbøen et al., 2018). The extent of civic integration measures represents another dividing line: Again, Sweden is placed on the extreme liberal side, with no language skill requirement, no citizenship test, nor any requirement as to economic self-support.…”

“…Besides this, a new Article 1 in the law, defining ‘the meaning of citizenship’ (Medborgarskapets betydelse) was instigated (SOU2013: 29). These two provisions can be interpreted as an attempt to upgrade the Swedish citizenship institution by symbolical means (Midtbøen et al., 2018).…”

“…Consequently, the core of the Swedishness-matter is seen as rights, equality and togetherness across groups of the population. Citizenship revocation is not allowed on any grounds, illustrating the strong rights-based approach (Midtbøen et al., 2018).…”

“…The citizenship policy divergence in Scandinavia is a fairly new phenomenon. In the long time span from 1880 to 1979, the three states cooperated closely in the field and, though not successful, even aimed at establishing a common Scandinavian citizenship in the mid-20th century (Brochmann, 2007; Midtbøen et al., 2018). Since the late 1970s, however, Norway, Sweden and Denmark have revised their laws partly or more extensively, leading to distinct differences among the three countries.…”

“…Sweden started the latest major revision in 1997, passing a new, liberal bill in 2001, whereas Norway soon followed suit, implementing a new, semi-strict law in 2006. Denmark has instigated a number of restrictive alterations in the naturalization requirements since the early 2000s, resulting in a highly strict citizenship policy (Midtbøen et al., 2018).…”