Sweden to raise hurdles to gaining citizenship
https://www.dw.com/en/sweden-to-raise-hurdles-to-gaining-citizenship/a-75875130
Posted by TheDeerFox
Sweden to raise hurdles to gaining citizenship
https://www.dw.com/en/sweden-to-raise-hurdles-to-gaining-citizenship/a-75875130
Posted by TheDeerFox
16 Comments
Too little, too late.
Not sure what I think about the increase to 8 years but the other points should have been a requirement from the beginning.
Having lived in Sweden for 5 years is pretty much the only requirement right now so all of these changes are welcome and won’t affect any of the immigrants that contribute to society.
A politican for the Liberal party proposed these changes over 20 years ago and was ostricized for being racist, the political climate has changed dramatically in the last 20 years.
A basic language test is too little.
Having to jump hurdles as part of entry is a **bit** weird, but whatever they want I guess
‘Bout time
Increase to 8 years is foolish, because everyone integrates at different speeds. But all the other requirements are reasonable.
Extending the time someone needs to spend working in the country without the elementary democratic right to vote. Keeping a growing part of the society deprived of democracy, deepening social inequalities and divisions. That’s all there is.
It is also an obvious act of appeasing the bullies. Historically, it has always been the wrong choice. But politically, always very lucrative in near-term. And these are some political hustlers. Near-term is all they see.
I’m good at 100m but hurdles is where I draw the line.
It’s so strange to me that the parties who are ’tough on immigration’ across Europe, continually do very little to fight the type of immigration people are vocal about, and instead put tougher restrictions and rules on those who moved to settle and integrate.
I moved to my wife in Sweden from UK, I had to wait a year for my application to be looked at, then declined on a paperwork technicality. I had to fix this technicality, then reapply and wait another year, then I’m back and forth to the extremely underfunded and understaffed embassy (whom were actually super friendly, but frustrated by the process), before waiting another 2 months to get my permit. This whole time I was instructed not to visit Sweden with an ongoing application. I move here and had to apply for a personnummer and a bank before I can do anything, the bank tells me I don’t need a number and can instead come for an appointment, I attend and they tell me I need a personnummer . I get my personnummer after 3 months of having lived here, wait another month and a half for a bank appointment and they then tell me I need a Swedish ID card, which I have to wait another month to get an appointment for, and another 3 weeks to get the ID card. For anyone who lives in Sweden, you will know how impossible life is without these things – everything asks for your BankID or personnummer, I couldn’t even go to a gym locally.
I have a constant anxiety and pressure around the upcoming permit renewal, which will now continue while I live here for 8 years, thanks to the changes to permanent residency they are planning, despite EU rules. When I travelled I got interrogated at immigration, every time, even with a valid permit and 0 history of issues or crime. To the point I am too afraid to travel outside the country or to visit family in the UK. When asked why I was being targeted, my wife was told the police were asked ’to make it tough for Brits’. I have done everything by the book, I learn Swedish, work and pay a lot of tax, follow the law and rules, join local groups and befriend natives. I completely agree with basic language tests and ensuring people are working, but everybody integrates at different speeds so time gating it further feels needlessly cruel. This is frustrating to say the least.
For what it’s worth, I am pro-EU and was staunchly against Brexit.
It has always shocked me that some countries do not require even basic knowledge of their language for citizenship. How do they want them to participate in the culture of the country when they don’t speak the local language?
We require B1 which generally is not that much and anyone can learn it within a few years.
How does it affect the Nordic rules for immigration? I became a Swedish citizen after 3 year of living here, the turnaround time was also super fast, think it was approved within a week.
Damn, it’s like I’m back at 2016 with some nostalgic Swedenbashing.
As someone who passed the Australian citizenship test in about 15 seconds. It’s is all a charade to win votes.
The tests are absymal, multi choice with 1 plausible answer and 3 absurd answers, questions like:
What’s the capital of NSW?
* What’s the capital of Victoria?
* Who is the head of state?
* Can you beat your wife if she doesn’t agree with you?
I’m not even exadurating…
You get 2 re-sits on the same day if you fail and can come back another day if you fail those.
It was HORRIFYING to see the people sweating their balls off in the exam centre.
This kind of stuff is very problematic, but not for the reason people think. For example the salary minimum is already a thing for people on work visas (although it used to be around ~1.3k euro per month several years ago). It used (and I believe it still is) to be checked _every month_ of your work visa, so you would get kicked out of the country if you didn’t apply for social security due to some problem for a part of a month (sick leave, parental leave, unemployment) or the social security benefit was less than the threshold (usually those benefits are capped at 80% of your base salary) or if you were changing jobs and went unemployed for a portion of a month.
The people don’t know these limitations and get kicked out of the country, it happens all the time already. I know several people who got kicked out of Sweden or reseted their time for pemanent residency/citizenship for similar reasons.
But it goes deeper than that, **the law says one thing, but the law is implemented by the bureaucrats.** The bureaucrats have to obey the **executive branch** of the government. So it is quite common that when a right-wing government comes in, they force the bureaucrats to interpret the law in a different way. Like suddenly the government shifts and the language test becomes 3x more difficult, or the salary starts being checked weekly and things like that, or an unpaid traffic ticket can be used to deny you visa, etc. **All without any laws being changed or the general public even knowing**.
In fact something similar happens already in the opposite direction in some areas, for example when left-wing governments come into power they push the traffic agency to be more strict with handing out driver licenses (it is comparatively very hard to get a license in sweden). When right wing comes to power they push them to be more lenient because young people are really screwed over on getting their licenses.
**These are the main reasons I am very against these kind of law-mandated restrictions on public institutions, they are there to be abused in power play between the different political parties.** There is no intent on benefiting the public _or_ the immigrants, **they are just collateral effects.**
There is nothing sloppy with reductio ad absurdum. It’s your position I’m afraid.