Swedish migration minister won't rule out making new citizenship rules retroactive

Forssell spoke to The Local after a press conference at which an inquiry into an overhaul of Sweden's citizenship rules presented its conclusions.

The inquiry recommends that the new rules should not be applied retroactively to those who submit their citizenship applications before the new law comes into force on June 1st, 2026.

But Forssell did not rule out the possibility that the government could go against the inquiry’s recommendations.

He said it is "something we will look into, but there are strong arguments – especially security arguments – for making sure that all these new requirements are put into place as soon as possible".

At the moment, there are almost 90,000 people with pending applications and waits could be as long as several years for some applicants.

When The Local asked whether the tighter requirements risk driving highly-skilled workers to other countries with more lenient rules, Forssell said he didn't believe that would be a problem.

“When discussing this issue together with many highly skilled labour migrants, but also with multinational companies, this is not a question that has been raised,” he said.

“There seem to be many more important questions for them, regarding taxation, the housing situation, schools et cetera. The kind of requirements that we’re imposing, to have a job et cetera, this is not a problem for them.”

Forssell believed that the new rules could even mean that more highly-skilled migrants come to Sweden.

“On the contrary, I would say that we would even have more of these highly skilled people coming to Sweden, if you’re a Nordic citizen, for example, you will not be affected by this. So no, I don’t see a great risk of that.”

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The government also plans to introduce language and civics tests for citizenship as part of a separate proposal originally put forward by the previous Social Democrat government in 2021. Forssell described it as “insane” that applicants don’t currently need to speak Swedish to qualify for citizenship.

“It’s insane that you can become a Swedish citizen without speaking a single word of Swedish, without knowing anything about Sweden,” he said.

“Even criminals have been able to become citizens in Sweden without having a job, so we will change this now.”

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He added that the government does not expect that applicants are fluent, but that they will need to “speak some Swedish and have a good understanding of Sweden”.

“It’s helpful for Sweden, but it’s also helpful for you as an individual. How are you going to be a citizen if you don’t understand anything that’s said around you?”

He added that he wants Swedish citizenship to be “something that you have worked hard for”.

“You need to make sure you know some Swedish, you have an understanding of Swedish society, that you have a job, and of course that you haven’t committed any crimes,” he said.

The inquiry also proposed more than doubling the current fee for citizenship from 1,400 kronor to 2,900 kronor for adults, and introducing a 475 kronor fee for children, who can currently apply for free.

“Swedish citizenship should mean something to you,” Forssell said in defence of the fee hike. “There should be tougher requirements and tougher controls. And I think looking at the cost compared to the Nordic countries, for example, it’s still quite cheap. But it needs some resources from you as an individual, but also from the agencies. I think this is a balanced proposal.”

In the press conference announcing the results of the inquiry, judge Kirsi Laakso Utvik said that the inquiry decided against introducing a citizenship ceremony, declaration of loyalty or oath, saying that organising this would be too much of an administrative headache and that a mandatory ceremony risked having the opposite effect.

Forssell hinted that the government might introduce something like this anyway.

“That is one of the things that we will look into. We will look into the whole inquiry – are the proposals what we asked for? Should we make any adjustments? I think these ceremonial things, they’re not unimportant, so to speak. But perhaps it is even more important to have strictly required formal requirements. But we will get back to that and present our answers here in the near future.”

Interview by Paul O'Mahony, article by Becky Waterton.