They are definitely right on the language skills, people keep praising the English proficiency of Swedes but English is not the language politics are discussed, it is not the language of the country.
There are also still many occasions where English translations are not readily available or lacking detail, and before anyone calls me out on this, it is better than the average in any other country, but it is a notable difference still.
If you know you live here only a few years, you are probably fine without learning Swedish in a meaningful manner, but if you are planning to become a citizen it is not unreasonable a requirement.
The values parts, concerns me a little but if it only covers the stuff mentioned in the article… OK.
8 instead of 5 years is definitely not a good development though.
you are probably fine without learning Swedish in a meaningful manner, but if you are planning to become a citizen it is not unreasonable a requirement.
i had a rant all prepared for this comment, along the lines of ‘yeah but they’re not doing anything to make learning the language or integrating any easier; they’re just adding further alientation and precarity into their lives’… but i realise all those words would be wasted because that’s the point.
the rightwing government doesn’t want people to integrate. they want to give every migrant such an acute case of Ulysses syndrome that they burn out and fail.
i have heard from people there that they just completely broke down after receiving their citizenship. they spent the years on a residency permit in unfurnished apartments with no lasting or heavy investments in society. they didn’t get medical or psychological treatment when they needed it, and they didn’t participate politically and stayed in their lane, living in effective peonage to their employers and trying to be model migrants and manage their energy levels so as not to draw any attention to themselves. they were too afraid to make any longlasting commitments in case it would all just be taken away from them on three-month’s notice. such a weight lifted from their shoulders that all the stress came barreling out and they crashed hard. this news — that their citizenship can be taken away on vagueties of ‘national security’ (most of the people i know there are activists), or because of ‘crimes’ committed long ago in their home countries, or that the rules could apply retroäctively — have brought back their stress right when they were just recovering and finally felt safe digging into their new permanent life.
it doesn’t matter that these policies are ‘targeted’ at ‘terrorists’ and gangs. these changes affect everyone who migrates to Sweden for any reason. the government’s habit of wildly changing the rules every 6 months isn’t helping.
Conservatisms purpose is to alienate everyone from society. Have the working class fighting each other so they don’t fight the social structures conservatism created to begin with.
John Stauffer, the head of Civil Rights Defenders, told AFP: “Research shows that tougher requirements for citizenship do not increase the incentives for integration, but rather contribute to the exclusion of a growing group of people who find themselves in the country for a long time without the basic rights of citizenship.”
I agree. It is also anachronistic for Sweden to hike the time requirement for Citizenship from 5 to 8 years as even Germany, with a notoriously racist and exclusive buerocracy has reduced the time requirements from 8 to 5 or even 3 years for people with particular integration achievements. A major reasoning was that many “tough on immigration” countries actually offer short times.
On the other hand with a looming far right coalition in Germany Sweden might be ahead od the far right policy surge.
Swedens far-right party does not have ministers, but are allowed to participate as part of the government in many ways (speaking as representatives of the government at press conferences, closed door meetings to ensure the far-right policies are being implemented as agreed, etc) and the government parties have adopted their retoric in some ways (“SD has always been correct when it comes to immigration” is an insane statement a government rep. has said, as SD is wellknown for “having been” a neo-nazi party started by actual nazi SS volonteers.). So Sweden is ahead in how close the far-right is to power. SD has been a bit less open about some far-right policies than AfD, I think. But since they are emboldened by how accepted they are by the other rightwing parties they are now more open. Their representatives now often talk about and defend replacement theory stuff, compares pride symbols with pedofilia, and such things.
BBC report on the same: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjdenz1drj8o
They’re focusing a bit more on the rescinding of the Swedish citizenship for certain individuals.
