Sweden’s passport will soon only be available for “honorable behavior”.

Anyone who wants to acquire citizenship in Sweden must expect significantly higher hurdles than before.

Sweden’s center-right government wants to make access to Swedish citizenship more difficult. According to the recommendation of a commission of experts on Tuesday, anyone who wants to become a Swedish citizen in the future should have lived in the country for eight years and demonstrate “honorable behavior”.

The Swedish Migration Minister, Johan Forssell, explained on the online service Instagram that “citizenship must be earned and not handed over unconditionally.”

The proposal states that applicants for Swedish citizenship will have to live in the Scandinavian country for eight years instead of the current five and will also have to take a language test and a test about Swedish society and its values. The expert commission proposes that the reform come into force on June 1, 2026.

Swedish citizenship helps unite people from different backgrounds under a “common Swedish identity,” Forssell said at a press conference. This is particularly important at a time when Sweden is welcoming hundreds of thousands of people from many parts of the world, as has been the case in recent years.

According to Forssell, it is important to “always be clear about what values ​​apply in Sweden.” Forssell mentioned gender equality, the right to marry whomever you want and the right of girls and boys alike to play football or go swimming. “If you don’t accept that, Sweden is not the right country for you,” said the minister.

The condition of “honorable behavior”, which will in future be linked to obtaining citizenship, primarily applies to people who have committed an administrative offense or a crime, or who are in debt. It will be more difficult for these people to obtain Swedish citizenship in the future, explained Kirsi Laakso Utvik, head of the expert commission.

The move to further complicate the path to Swedish citizenship is the latest such measure since the liberal-conservative government led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson took office in 2022. The right-wing populist Sweden Democrats, who support Kristersson’s government, are particularly seen as supporters of a strict immigration policy.

In a statement to the AFP news agency, the head of the legal department at the NGO Civil Rights Defenders, John Stauffer, criticized the proposal as ineffective. “Studies show that stricter citizenship requirements do not increase incentives for integration, but rather contribute to exclusion,” Stauffer explained.