The Christian Democrats want fewer citizenships to be granted – but Jimmie Åkesson believes it is necessary to go further than that and wants the Swedish Migration Agency to stop processing citizenship cases altogether.
“Swedish citizenship should not be something that is handed out to just anyone, but should be reserved for people with a genuine love for our country”, writes the SD leader.
In an opinion piece in the tabloid Aftonbladet, Åkesson notes that tens of thousands of immigrants are granted Swedish citizenship every year – without any major demands being made on them.
“In fact, in the last 10 years alone, Sweden has granted more than 660,000 Swedish citizenships, preferably to individuals from deeply dysfunctional countries where values are often completely different from those that characterize our Swedish culture”, he notes.
“This is what the naive migration and integration policies of previous governments have looked like, which we unfortunately still have to bear the consequences of. This is of course completely crazy policy. Policy that we are very keen to clean up and change fundamentally”, continues the SD leader.
Av alla hundratals frågor vi hanterar tillsammans med regeringen är den om medborgarskap en av de absolut viktigaste. Sverige är inte bara skog, berg och sjöar. Sverige är vad Sverige är idag som ett resultat av vad nu levande och tidigare generationer har åstadkommit. Vad…
— Jimmie Åkesson (@jimmieakesson) November 21, 2024
“Clearly unsuitable individuals”
Citizenship continues to be handed out lightly even under the current center-right government – over 50,000 so far in 2024 and similar numbers are expected next year.
“As if these numbers weren’t enough, over the years we’ve been treated to completely senseless stories of individuals who have been granted citizenship when they clearly shouldn’t be welcome in Sweden at all”, Åkesson writes, pointing to how foreign rapists and murderers have nevertheless been allowed to become Swedish citizens for some unfathomable reason.
The center-right government and the Swedish Social Democrats have indeed set up an investigation, the purpose of which is to tighten the requirements for being granted Swedish citizenship, but the leader of the Sweden Democrats points out that it will take a long time before this bears fruit.
“Unfortunately, it takes time to clean up the policy, which means that we must seriously consider alternative solutions while the investigation continues. We have long pushed for a moratorium on citizenship in our negotiations with the government. The meaning is simple – stop all new citizenship grants until the new, tighter, framework is in place”.
“Why should Sweden even consider granting Swedish citizenship to clearly unsuitable individuals with values that are directly incompatible with our own?” he asks.
Citizenship – a privilege
Although Åkesson welcomes Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch’s announcement to issue fewer Swedish citizenships, he says this is not enough.
“However, we maintain that we should be able to go further than just calling for a slower pace. If the Migration Agency were instead to pause the processing of citizenship cases altogether, we could prevent the issuance of tens of thousands of new citizenships”.
“Swedish citizenship should not be something that is handed out to just anyone, but should be reserved for people with a genuine love for our country, and who have honest ambitions to make Sweden a better country than it was yesterday. So let’s make it so”, he concluded.
