Nobody should thank for Swedish

Citizenship has gone from law to moral question

“Steam one day The strangest letter in our mailbox. It was an invitation for a welcome ceremony. All new Swedes were called to the town hall on 6 June to get a diploma and hear a welcome speech.

I didn’t understand. First, the state did everything to get rid of us. And now we would attend a welcome ceremony? And like athletes who had won a competition, get a medal? Nobody sees the irony?

The state apparently does not do that. For this year it has become law that every municipality has to organize a citizenship ceremony once a year to celebrate new Swedish citizens and to mark the importance of citizenship. “

This is coming From a chronicle that I wrote in Aftonbladet for the day ten years ago.

The reactions did not wait.

Moderate Tobias BillströmWhen Vice President and former migration minister was so upset that he chose to teach on his official Facebook page. According to him, I should show gratitude for Sweden that my family granted asylum in 1991. Without that I would not have had my position on Aftonbladet, he meant.

The phone went hot. The conversations were interspersed between media and haters. A man who is called and masturbated in the handset. SR wondered if I wanted to debate against a right -wing populist blogger. I absolutely didn’t want that.

It may sound In harmless to statute, a ceremony and the Citizenship Act change – but with me the warning bubbles mentioned. Experience from other countries shows that this is exactly how it starts when citizenship goes from a legal right to accusation of morality, emotions and loyalty requirements.

Unfortunately I am right.

The Social Democrats were very nervous in the 1990s. Access to the EU in 1994 and the rapid globalization pushed the party to support the band at home. It was afraid that the sense of the nation state would be weakened and therefore a nationalist “we” wanted to “strengthen”.

As part of this, the S-Government decided in 2003 to make an official holiday from 6 June. Behind the decision there was no strong opinion or loud requirements, but the idea that a counterbalance for what the government described was “a time of increased internationalization”. The bill emphasized the importance of “the Swedish language, Swedish history, the Swedish cultural heritage and the Swedish social system”.

When the Reinfeldt government was power in 2012 The continued it on the same path and appointed the citizenship research. They wanted to see if one could use citizenship as “an incentive to promote integration”. The tone of the Law Council’s assignment is friendly and emphasizes the community. But the portal paragraph of the new Citizenship Act also emphasized the symbolism: “Swedish citizenship is a legal relationship between the individual and the state based on a mutual relationship between rights and obligations. Citizenship also has a deeper identity and symbolic meaning.“(My italics). It was a Pandora box that was then opened.

In short, it is about making asylum rights – and even more citizenship – something conditional. You should have earned yourself to become Swedish.

Sociologist Bridget Anderson In their research shows how states are increasingly transforming citizenship of a right into a reward, something to earn. In the book “US and them?” She describes how immigrants are forced to implement loyalty, obedience and adjustment of the law, while citizens of the majority of society never have to prove their conviction.

The Asylum Act follows both EU legislation and international law and must guarantee that people can search for asylum, have a legally secured process and not be deported for, for example, prosecution.

Nowadays, many countries try to circumvent that well by making it as difficult as possible to even reach the limit to apply. People are denied air cards and are refused visas so that they are forced to hire smugglers and use false documents – to even get close to the migration board and say: “I want to live here”.

If you are It is possible to get completely, wait for a second suspicion round with interrogations, age assessments – and now requirements for well -paid jobs, large living space (if you want to take your family), language skills are also presented. Dan: a waiting of five years. And finally, the same state – as during the entire process, one has treated as a problem – ceremony and says, “Congratulations, what a nice thing you want to become Swedish.”

That is what is mentioned in the psychology language Gas lighting.

Ten years Then many older social -democrats were hurt by my text. They saw the ceremony as a way to prevent xenophobia-a symbolic act that would mark the new democracy and the Nazis that were strong in the nineties. I understand the reasoning, but they miss the point.

Nowadays, however, these social -democrats can be missed when many in the party previously welcome the abuse of asylum politics and citizenship. When the so -adhesive Vandels research, which was run by SD, was presented, the social -democrat thought Different Ygeman That it went in the “right direction”.

Vandel, ie life, has become a tool to sort people. Have you received parking fines? Demonstrable against climate change? Have you had problems with the social provisions? Have you been convicted of small crimes? Then it can be your right to continue to influence in the country or to become a citizen.

Sociologist Didier Fassin The “moral economy”, how state decisions on migration are not only based on legal or financial considerations, but also on moral values ​​and emotions – as suspicion. Some groups are considered potentially unreliable.

Or if Ayelet ShachharDirector of the Max Planck Institute writes about in “The Birthright Lottery”: Most citizens have been lucky to be born in the right place, while others have to have the right to stay, to work, to stay, to be accepted.

When my chronicle Published I also became aware of the difference in values ​​between the older and my generation of immigrants. Many in my elder generation found the text embarrassing. For them, Sweden was still a place where they were a guest. I became the stubborn child who didn’t know how to behave with the guest people.

But maybe that’s exactly what is needed. Someone who reminds us that asylum is not a gift. Those rights may not be earned by submission. That citizenship is not something that you are assigned by “good walking”. Only the person who regards rights in this way expects gratitude.

Talking about “requirements” and a special “responsibility” for immigrants can create the impression of action, but is usually a brand: “You are not like us.”

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