Hej alla,
This April (as I wrote in the daily newsletter yesterday) is going to be what's known in Swedish as an ödesmånad – a "month of destiny" – for the over 100,000 people whose citizenship applications risk being rejected due to the lack of transition rules in the upcoming citizenship bill.
This comes as the Fair Transition campaign steps up pressure on MPs and political parties, with the Social Democrats – the biggest party in the parliament – on Friday submitting a motion calling for the transitional rules recommended by a government inquiry to be added to the bill.
As the Green Party, Centre Party and Left Party have already submitted motions calling for transitional rules (the latter calls for the bill to be scrapped altogether), this means the opposition is now united on the issue.
The new law increases the residency period to be eligible for citizenship from five years to eight, requires applicants to prove Swedish language skills and civics knowledge, and brings in a new residency requirement.
The first of these in particular will mean that applicants who fulfilled the criteria when they applied – often years ago – will be rejected, largely as a result of slow processing times at the Migration Agency.
As the government, together with the Sweden Democrats, has a three-seat majority in the parliament, as things stand the fact that the opposition is united will not be enough to change the law.
There are three scenarios which could change this equation before parliament votes on the bill on April 29th:
- The government itself could yield to pressure and change the law itself
- The Liberal Party could break with the government, with its 16 MPs then voting with the opposition
- At least two of the Liberal Party's MPs could rebel and vote with the opposition.
Unfortunately, all three are unlikely.
The government did back down on migration rules earlier this month, promising to take action to reduce unpopular deportations of young adults and hard-working foreigners. But despite the efforts of campaign groups like Fair Transition (and The Local) it's not under the same amount of public pressure on citizenship. It is not as emotive an issue. No one gets deported when their citizenship application is rejected.
Liberal leader Simona Mohamsson this month struck a "Sweden Promise" agreement with the Sweden Democrats, hugged Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson, and said she was ready to serve alongside ministers from the far-right party in a future government. The Liberals are now closer aligned with the government than they have ever been. It seems unlikely that they will follow this by breaking with the other parties over an issue which voters hardly care about.
As for the third and final scenario, MPs in Sweden almost never rebel, with studies showing it happens in only a few percent of votes. But this is still campaigners' best hope. At least one of the Liberal Party's MPs said they would resign from the party if it opened up to Sweden Democrat ministers (they seem to have gone quiet since), and another said they would not stand for reelection. Might they choose to inflict a defeat on the government as their parting shot? Unlikely, but not impossible.
The Social Insurance Committee is due to make final amendments to the bill on April 14th. It will then go before parliament for the final vote on April 29th.
Migration news
I interviewed Åsa Holmes, head of the Migration Agency's citizenship unit in Gothenburg, last week about the agency's efforts to combat the long backlog of citizenship cases.
She explained how the agency is working through the oldest cases at a pace of 1,000 to 1,500 cases a week and hopes to have appointed a case officer to all cases from 2022 and earlier by the summer. The oldest case which does have a case officer, she revealed, dates back to 2016. The applicant has been waiting for nine, perhaps ten, years! If that sounds like you, we'd love to speak to you. Contact us at this email.
As well as being admirably open about the agency's efforts to manage the backlog, Holmes also revealed that the two citizenship units (there's another one in Norrköping), have stopped automatically requesting passports and identity cards at the start of the process.
Membership+ subscribers can also listen to my interview with Fredrik Kopsch, chief economist at the free-market think tank Timbro, who has written a book Utvisad, or "Deported", about the deportations caused by the government's policies. I was fascinated by his perspective on how the political right in Sweden was ignoring the "basic economics" that supports liberal labour migration.
With Migration Minister Johan Forssell citing security to justify not including transitional rules int the citizenship, we asked the Säpo security police for some details on the risk represented by citizenship applicants and why they needed eight years rather than five to check up on them. They said the checks "often takes a long time".
Forssell rather grudgingly told our reporter Paul O'Mahony on Wednesday that he might be willing to meet campaigners from the Fair Transition group, but it didn't seem like he was making a commitment.
Sweden could start rejecting or revoking residency permits of foreigners who are not living up to its standards for good behaviour as earlier as this summer, after the government submitted its bill on bristande vandel, or "lack of good conduct" to parliament.
The government is also pushing forward with a watered down version of its controversial "snitch bill", which will make a number of state employees obligated to report foreigners without valid permits to the police.
The new bill will cover employees of the Swedish Tax Agency, Public Employment Service, Enforcement Authority, Social Insurance Agency, Pensions Agency, and the Prison and Probation Authority, but not, as originally feared teachers, social workers and health workers.
What else have we been writing about this week?
It's not just the citizenship bill vote happening next month. The government is slashing VAT on food from 12 percent to 6 percent from April 1st (that's Wednesday). You can read about this and all the other things you should know about in this month's edition of our regular What Changes in Sweden.
After years of indecision, Stockholm City Council has finally granted building permission to a new Nobel Centre, which will be built on Slussen. The design has been likened to something from the game Minecraft.
Hisingen looks like it's overtaking Majorna as the most popular district for foreigners in Gothenburg, at least according to the readers who responded to our survey, with Hisingen neighbourhoods like Lindholmen, Kvillebäcken and Bräcke all getting rave reviews from residents. Thanks to everyone who contributed.
We've now moved on to Malmö, so would be enormously grateful to any Malmö residents who fill in our latest survey. Do you prefer the modern harbourside living of Västra Hamnen or Limhamn or laid-back, artsy Möllevången?
Finally, if you live in the town of Strömstad on the border with Norway, be aware that the local branch of Systembolaget will be closed on Maundy Thursday to combat the phenomenon that blights this community every Easter: drunken Norwegians!
That's that for now. Have a great weekend, and, as I don't think I'll be writing the newsletter next week, have a Happy Easter! (I'll be celebrating back home in the UK).
Richard
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