Workshop for SWEPSA 2014
The Boundaries of Citizenship – Naturalization, Integration, Membership
Christian Fernández, Malmö University
In recent years a growing number of European countries have introduced language and civics tests as well as other naturalization criteria for immigrants who wish to become citizens. Sweden is actually one of the few European countries that as of today have not implemented any such admission criteria – although a very light version is proposed in the citizenship committee report (SOU 2013: 29). The reasons for implementing naturalization criteria come in slightly different shapes, although they normally stress the importance of citizenship as a sign of full inclusion in society and of facilitating integration by making the implicit (liberal-democratic) norms and values of society explicit. The spreading use of naturalization criteria are controversial, however, and have been widely debated. Is the real intention to facilitate integration or to exclude migrants from political membership? Are they democratically justifiable? If so, what should they cover and how should they be carried out? And, not the least, what effects do such tests really have – on the rate of applications for citizenship, on patterns of migration and on integration? With respect to such questions, the overarching aim of the workshop is to explore citizenship as a boundary drawing and polity (re)producing instrument. Scholars of all backgrounds with an interest in citizenship, naturalization and integration are warmly invited to submit papers, be they empirical or theoretical, comparative or single case studies, descriptive or normative. Contact Christian Fernández. Associate Professor in Political Science. christian.fernandez@mah.se