Sweden has been one of the easiest countries to obtain citizenship in.

But if the Tidö parties’ proposal, which will soon be reviewed, becomes a reality, Sweden will go from one extreme to the other and become one of the countries with the strictest requirements for citizenship in Europe, writes SVT.

The language and social skills requirement that was investigated during the January agreement, which the government will implement, will bring Sweden closer to developments in the rest of Europe – where several countries tightened their requirements in the 2000s.

But Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergård (M) and the government want to go further and have proposed a further study to tighten the requirements.

We have been extremely relaxed, says Stenergård.

The government aims to take a position on the investigation of the proposal in the summer.

There is a legitimate interest in the fact that it cannot be too easy to become a Swedish citizen. It must be upgraded both legally and symbolically, said the migration minister recently.

Andreas Johansson Heinö, PhD in political science and publisher of the market-liberal think tank Timbro, believes that there has been a lack of debate which has led to the possibility of strong tightening.

When the Liberals put forward fairly mild proposals 20 years ago, there was strong opposition and they were accused of being xenophobic. Now we have quite radical proposals, not xenophobic – but radical, which met almost no resistance at all he says, adding:

None of these proposals are particularly dramatic in themselves, but it is unusual for a country to make all these demands at the same time.