Passports - Sweden

Compulsory Passport System before 1860

Domestic travel certificate, (Swe: inrikespass) or road document (Swe: vägbrev) was a document similar to the modern passport used for domestic travels. This document was needed for everyone making a journey or was at a public place in Sweden from the 1500s to 1860. In 1606 as well as in 1638 it was ordered that all travelers to and from Sweden must have a passport. So, in Sweden, everyone needed a travel document similar to a passport when making domestic as well as foreign journeys. For town dwellers, domestic travel certificates and passports were issued by the Town Council (town administration) and by the County Administrative Board (Swe: Länstrylesen) for country people. Passports for foreign tourneys were also issued by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Swe: Utrikesdepartementet) and at Swedish embassies abroad. However, not until the beginning of the 1800s, signalment (description on the holder of the passport) was added to the passports. The Customs checked and controlled all travelers arriving in Sweden. The Customs are also tasked with responsibility for the protection of Sweden's borders, i.e. border guards. In the 1800s, under the Quarantine Act, travelers arriving in Sweden from an area contaminated with cholera needed a health certificate. In the 1860s, health certificates were needed for domestic travelers too, if coming from a Swedish province with an outbreak of cholera. On 21 September 1860, the compulsory passport system was abolished, both for domestic and foreign journeys. However, the demand for travel documents wasn’t abolished for all groups in society. Traveling salesmen, the unemployed, and the convicted released on parole for example still needed travel documents. If a traveler was going abroad to a country that demanded a passport to enter, the traveler could apply for a passport before the journey commenced. However, between 1860 and 1917, most countries in Europe had no demand for passports for travelers. In 1917, Sweden reintroduced the demand for passports for people arriving or leaving the country. Passports as we know them today, like a small book, weren’t introduced until the 1900s. Before, passports were handwritten or printed on a sheet of paper. There was no standardized form, so the passports varied in appearance.

Permission to Emigrate

It was illegal to emigrate from Sweden to other countries without permission. Without such an exit permit you couldn’t get a moving certificate from the parish minister and thereby not be able to buy an emigrant ticket through an emigrant agent. The Police Departments in the Swedish emigrant ports checked that the regulations were followed and that the emigrants were legal emigrants. Before 1860, emigrants also needed domestic travel certificates to go from the hometown to the port of departure and to go aboard on a vessel destined to a foreign country. All this was stated in the travel certificate. In 1869 Sweden adopted a law that required the registration of emigrants leaving Sweden and thereby we saw the birth of passenger lists. Under the Servant Act of 1739 (Swe: Legostadgan), it was stipulated that all servants needed travel certificates. Servants that went on unauthorized journeys abroad and didn’t return to Sweden within a year, lost their right of inheritance. In the second half of the 1700s, more restrictions on emigration were introduced. In 1768, it was ruled that a person leaving Sweden for the third time without permission was facing the death penalty. These laws limiting emigration were in effect until 1860 when the compulsory passport system was abolished. However, from 1850 these laws weren’t practiced. The only legal possibility the authorities in Sweden had to prevent emigration was the general prohibition for conscripts to emigrate to other countries without permission.

Compulsory Passport System Reintroduced

in 1917

As mentioned above, Sweden abolished the compulsory passport system in 1860, both for domestic travel as well as for foreign travel. When World War I broke out in 1914 the situation changed. There was a great and justified fear for spies and saboteurs during the war. The European countries needed to control and supervise everyone arriving or leaving the country and passports were reintroduced in most countries as a “temporary measure”. Sweden reintroduced compulsory passports in 1917. So, the modern compulsory passport system in Europe can be derived back to World War I. This has been practiced since then for travel between countries (there are exceptions) until the EU Schengen Agreement came into effect in 1985. The Schengen Agreement is a treaty that led to the creation of Europe's Schengen Area, in which internal border checks have largely been abolished. It was signed on 14 June 1985, near the town of Schengen, Luxembourg. After World War I, there was a consensus between most countries to keep passports for security reasons. However, they all agreed that there has to be an international standard regarding passports. In 1920, in Paris, the first passport conference was arranged by the League of Nations (predecessor to the United Nations, UN). It was decided that all member countries should issue passports in the shape of a booklet. The passport must contain information such as the holder’s name and characteristics. The period of validity must be at least two years, preferably five years. Further, the passports should be issued in two languages. In 1926 and 1927, there were two additional passport conferences arranged, which led to the introduction of photographic portraits and details about the holder’s characteristics and appearances, such as age, place and date of birth, height, the color of hair, color of eyes, and facial features, etc. In 1929, in Sweden, a decree was made regarding the issuing of passports for Swedish nationals for the purpose of international travel. Passports for Swedish nationals were issued by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Swedish embassies abroad, County Administrative Boards, Police Departments, and Town Councils. On 2 July 1954, member countries of the Nordic Council (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland, formed in 1952) On 2 July 1954, the Nordic labor market was created and in 1958, building upon a 1952 passport-free travel area, the Nordic Passport Union was created. These two measures helped ensure Nordic citizens' free movement around the area. In 2001, Sweden joined the Schengen Convention which ensured Swedish nationals to freely travel within the Schengen area of the EU. Not until 1980, the passports were fully standardized internationally, mostly due to the increasing air traffic and the thereby longer queues at passport controls. A passport is a travel document, issued by a country's government to its citizens, that certifies the identity and nationality of its holder. The image to the right shows a Swedish passport of today.

Citizenship in Sweden

Naturalization

Naturalization is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the individual, or it may involve an application or a motion and approval by legal authorities. In other words, to obtain the same civil rights, guaranteed by law, as all the nation’s citizens. Naturalization is usually obtainable for an alien that has been a resident in a country for many years. Acquisition of citizenship: a person that has migrated to another state’s territory where he/she is a resident may acquire citizenship by filing an application with the appropriate authority if the person fulfills all the prescribed criteria. Citizenship in a new country usually involves renouncing all allegiance and fidelity to the citizenship of the person’s former country unless the new country recognizes dual citizenship. Under international law, each state is free to determine the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and the conditions under which that status will be withdrawn. Recognition by a state as a citizen generally carries with it recognition of civil, political, and social rights that are not afforded to non-citizens. Sweden In Sweden, civil rights (Swe: Medborgarrätt) and the right of citizenship (Swe: Medborgarskapsrätt) were developed in the 1600s and 1700s. A Swedish subject was a person born in Sweden by Swedish parents, resident in Sweden. At that time, naturalization existed too, i.e. a non- citizen of Sweden was able to acquire citizenship or nationality of Sweden, granted by the King. In 1828, there were 10 aliens registered by the office of the Stockholm City Governor (Swe: Överståthållare). All aliens were registered by name, country of origin, profession, and religious faith. These ten aliens had been residents in Stockholm for 10 years and were now granted Swedish citizenship. See the document below. Citizenship Ordinance 1858 The acquisition of citizenship in Sweden was regulated for the first time in the Citizenship Ordinance 1858 (SFS 1858 nr.13). It was a Royal Ordinance passed on 27 February 1858 and stated the terms and conditions for aliens becoming naturalized Swedish citizens. New Swedish citizens were obliged to take the required citizenship oath of allegiance (Swe: Tro och Huldhetsed). This requirement comprised only men and was abolished in the Citizenship Act 1924. Under the Citizenship Ordinance 1858, to become a Swedish subject, an alien must file for citizenship with the King of Sweden and the conditions were; age 21 or above, resident in Sweden for at least three years, have a good reputation, and opportunity to support oneself. The application must include attached proof of the applicant’s age, country of origin. Further, the application must contain information regarding the places of residence the applicant has been living at after arriving in Sweden. Finally, proof of good reputation and religious faith. Aliens granted Swedish citizenship automatically lost their former citizenship since Sweden then did not recognize dual citizenship. They were also required to take the citizenship oath of allegiance. See the image of the Citizenship Ordinance 1858 below. Sweden later passed several Citizenship Acts, years 1894, 1924, and 1950. Citizenship Act 1894 The Citizenship Act 1894 (Swe: Medborgarskapslagen 1894) was passed on 1 October 1894 (nr 71). The Act’s paragraph about the loss of Swedish citizenship was a codification of earlier praxis. If a person with Swedish citizenship migrates from Sweden he will lose his Swedish citizenship. Further, if a Swedish subject acquires citizenship in another country he will lose his Swedish citizenship independent of the place of residence. Citizenship Act 1924 The 1894 Act was replaced by the Citizenship Act 1924, passed on on 23 May 1924 (nr 130) regarding acquisition and loss of citizenship. The Act is also known as the Swedish Nationality Law 1924. Regarding loss of citizenship, the 1924 law slightly changed the conditions for loss of citizenship. Loss of citizenship when a Swedish subject acquired citizenship in another country would only occur if he also migrated abroad. There was also a possibility for a person, under those circumstances to apply to the King of Sweden to retain his Swedish citizenship. Citizenship Act 1950 After World War II, the Swedish Nationality Law of 1924 was the subject of reforms. The Swedish growing welfare state required foreign laborers. It was difficult, with all the restrictions in the then- current nationality law, to import foreign laborers. The reform of the 1924 law resulted in new nationality law, the Citizenship Act 1950 (1950:382). The 1950 Act stipulated new conditions for naturalization. The applicant must be 18 years old or more, been a resident in Sweden for at least seven years, been leading a respectable life, and have the opportunity to support himself and his family. Aliens applying for Swedish citizenship were compelled to prove that they were able to support themselves and not a burden to society. It was also important that the migrants could prove themselves orderly and steady without a criminal record. The Police made investigations to find out whether the applicant met the stated conditions and terms. In this process, the Police often used “trustworthy people” in the neighborhood of respective applicants, fellow workers, etc. It was then up to the government to rule which applicant was to be granted citizenship in Sweden. The government partly based their decisions on the Police reports, which gave the Police a big influence on which aliens that was to be granted Swedish citizenship. Early 1900s The increasing number of migrants to Sweden at the beginning of the 1900s caused uneasiness and suspiciousness. The government passed three laws to regulate and control immigration to Sweden. During World War I 1914 - 1918, there was a large number of refugees coming to Sweden, some just passing through the country. With an increasing number of migrants, the “alien control” was extended. In the early 1900s, the immigration from Eastern Europe was big and a new section within the alien control specialized on migrants from Eastern Europe. In 1905, there were great disturbances in Russia (The Russian Revolution of 1905) and many people fled from Russia to other European countries. Sweden became a transit country. A great deal of these people emigrated to the US but many also stayed in Sweden. In the spring of 1906, a secret Russian socialistic conference was held in Stockholm and the city was filled with Russian revolutionaries. The Swedish government was very concerned but had no legal measures to stop the visiting Russians. Among the participants were Lenin (later head of the USSR) and Stalin. The Swedish police initiated an investigation and interrogated Russians. At the time, the Police had begun to systematically gather information about migrants coming from Eastern Europe, and these migrants were also obliged to report to the police and leave personal details. The migrants risked being deported, not only if they broke a law or disturbed law and order, but also if they failed to report to the police or if they gave false details. On 31 July 1914, the Stockholm Police Department established a secret section by the name the Police Bureau (Swe: Polisbyrån) consisting of six detectives monitoring and controlling aliens but also kept a register of the aliens (Swe: utlänningsregister). The bureau wasn’t publicly known until after the war. An alien resident in Sweden who wasn’t holder of a passport was, after an Act passed in 1917, obliged to apply for a so-called “Residence Book” (Swe: Uppehållsbok). The applicant filled the application by himself with information such as country of origin, occupation, doing in Sweden, and the reason why he had no passport. Usually a portrait photo was attached to the application. Residence Book: Between 1918 - 1924, all aliens resident in Sweden without a passport issued in their home countries were obliged to apply for a “residence book” to remain in Sweden. The residence book contained information about the alien’s country of origin, date of birth, date of arrival in Sweden, and the reason for staying in Sweden, and a portrait photo. Whether an alien was to be granted a residence book or to be deported was assessed and based on whether it was in the interest of Sweden to have the alien staying in Sweden. Aliens were bound to present the residence book every time they move to a new place in Sweden. Every Swede that kept an alien lodger had to report this to the police. Aliens temporally visiting Sweden were not obliged to apply for a residence book.

Above, an image showing an extract from the Citizenship Ordinance 1858. Image: Wikipedia. Click on the image to enlarge it.

List of Aliens in Stockholm in 1828 who were

granted Swedish Citizenship

Related Links

• Domestic Travel Certificates • History of Swedish Customs Service • History of Swedish Police • History of Swedish Military Intelligence • History of the Swedish Parliament

Source References

• Utlänning – ett relativt begrepp, artikel av Maria Bratt i Släkthistoriskt Forum nr 5 2017. • Passet – vägens dokument, artikel av Anna-Brita Lövgren i Populär Historia nr 4 2001. • Medborgarskapslagstiftningen: Återkallelse av medborgarskap efter omprövning – rättssäkert eller osäkert? Examensarbete i offentlig rätt av Zarina Musa, Juridiska institutionen, Uppsala universitet, höstterminen 2014. • Från fri folkförflyttning till restriktiv skyddslagstiftning, En rättshistorisk studie av motiven bakom utlänningslagstiftningen under 1920- och 1930-talen. Uppsats Jonatan Macznik på juristprogrammet, Juridiska fakulteten, Lunds universitet, höstterminen 2014. • Övervakning för rikets säkerhet; Svensk säkerhetspolisiär övervakning av utländska personer och inhemsk politisk aktivitet, 1885–1922. Uppsatts av Jenny Langkjaer, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, Stockholms universitet, 1993. • Wikipedia • Stockholmskällan Top of page

A Refused Application for Swedish

Citizenship in 1914

Not all aliens applying for Swedish citizenship were granted citizenship. The Italian stucco worker Silla Italo Guiseppe Bellios, a resident in Sweden, applied for Swedish citizenship in 1914. He supported himself and his wife as an employed worker, receiving wages. The Police report, made oun 16 January 1914, showed that his provision was uncertain, especially if he would be sick and the police feared that the couple might end up as a burden for the poor relief. The Police recommended that his application should be refused. Image: Stockholm Stadsarkiv SE/SSA/021/02 Överståthållarämbetet för polisärenden 1 Polissekreteraren FXIV volym 1. Handling 16 January 1914. Stockholmskällan.

Deportation after Committing a Crime in

1908

A crime committed by an alien in Sweden could lead to deportation. Maria Vettése, was an Italian musician resident in Sweden. She was a lodger living in the Södermalm district of Stockholm together with her husband Antonio, who also was a musician and their children. After a visit to a physician, she was accused of stealing a gold ring out of the physician’s pocket. When the Police searched of her home they found the ring, worn by her husband Antonio. This incident led to the deportation of Maria and her husband. During the police interrogation, Maria denied the crime and claimed that she had found the gold ring on the ground on her way to a gig outside Stockholm. However, she was prosecuted by the Stockholm District Court where she was convicted for the crime and sentenced to prison. After serving time in prison, the couple was deported from Sweden. The deportation order was issued by the Government on 15 May 1908. The image to the right shows the Police’s photo of Maria Vettése in 1908. Photo: Stockholm Stadsarkiv SE/SSA/0023/01 / Överståthållarämbetet för polisärenden 3, Kriminalavdelningen, Fotografier, alfabetiskt ordnade 1893-1907 (D Xib:15). Okänd polisfotograf 1908. The deportation order: Stockholms stadsarkiv SE/SSA/0024/01/Överståthållareämbetet/Utlänning savdelningen/E I a volym 1. Handlingen utfärdad av Hugo Hamilton, Kungl. Maj:t, 15 May 1908. Stockholmskällan.

Control of Aliens

In 1885, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Stockholm Police Department initiated surveillance of political gatherings. At the beginning of the 1900s, surveillance of migrants from Eastern Europe began, especially after the 1905 Russian Revolution. A great number of migrants streamed out of Russia to other European countries. The alien controls of migrants were intensified after 1905. The Stockholm Police Department began to systematically gather information about the migrants from Eastern Europe. In 1906, a circular letter was issued giving the Swedish Police Departments’ commission to control and check migrants from Eastern Europe. On 31 July 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, a secret police department was established through a cooperation between the CID with the Stockholm Police Department, and the Army General Staff. The name of the new unit was the Police Bureau (Swe: Polisbyrån) and was until the end of the war organized under the General Staff. However, the cooperation between the General Staff and the Stockholm CID commenced already in 1908. The Police Bureau was established as an organization tasked with counterespionage. The chiefs were entirely army officers with the General Staff while the agents were foremost police detectives. The Police Bureau was disestablished on 21 June 1922 and replaced in 1923 by the newly established Alien Control Department (Swe: Utlänningskontrollen or Statens Polisbyrå) and the agency received a more police direction. The head of the new department was Assistant Commissioner (Swe: Polisintendent) Erik Hallgren (1880 – 1956). The agency’s main task was initially the supervision of extremist organizations. In August 1914, just after the outbreak of WWI, the County Administrative Boards (Swe: Länsstyrelsen) in each county were commissioned by the respective County Police Commissioner to order all aliens to report personal particulars such as an address, changes of addresses, date of birth and occupation. The Police were commissioned to set up a register of all aliens in Sweden and send these lists to the Ministry of Public Administration (Swe: Civildepartementet). The purpose was to establish a national register of all aliens in Sweden. Further, the County Administrative Boards were tasked to report to the Ministry if they came across a Swedish subject or an alien that might be “a danger to national security serving the interest of a foreign state” and all alien subjects that failed the obligation to report regularly to police. In August 1917, Sweden reintroduced the compulsory passport system. All aliens in Sweden above the age of 12 were compelled to hold a passport including a visa, proving that they had permission to visit Sweden. If an alien arrived in Sweden without a valid visa and passport his or her admittance into Sweden might be refused. Together with the reintroduction of passports in 1917, the County Administrative Boards were commissioned to interrogate all aliens to find out what they were doing in Sweden and the reason for their stay here. This was an addition to the circular letter issued in 1906, which commissioned the Police authorities in each county to control and check all aliens arriving from Eastern Europe. As of 1917, all aliens could be brought to a police station to be interrogated independently where they came from. In 1917, the instruction to the police regarding the type of information they should obtain from the aliens was much more detailed. In December 1918, the rules for aliens’ right to stay in Sweden were tightened up. A decree ruled that all alien subjects in Sweden were compelled to hold a passport with a Swedish visa. If the alien had entered Sweden before 13 August 1917 without a visa, he or she must hold a “residence book” (see above). From 1918, the Police Bureau was no longer secret and now an official department part of the Aliens Control. The bureau was commissioned to peruse the supervision of aliens in Sweden and to keep necessary registers for this task. According to Police archives from the beginning of the 1900s, the majority of the immigrants to Stockholm came from Finland, the Baltic States, and Russia. However, there were many immigrants from other countries in Europe and Persia too.

Political Refugee in 1906

In 1906, Nicola Rodsjanco, a political refugee from Charkow in Ukraine, arrived in Stockholm. A police report was established and the report holds the following information about him: “He is a political refugee; he was detained for a month in Charkow, but after being released he did not dare to stay in Ukraine since he risked being detained again by the police. He is a social democrat but he is not affiliated with any political party, he merely pays tribute to such parties. He left Ukraine 12 days ago and went straight to Sweden.” The polis report states further that Rodsjanco intends to later go to Russia. Rodsjanco speaks bad German, has dark eyebrows, no beard, green-blue eyes, straight nose ……… He is obliged to report regularly to the police. Below, the image shows the first part of the police report established about Nicola Rodsjanco in Stockholm in 1906. Image: Stadsarkivet, Stockholm, polishandling från Utlänningsexpeditionen, April 1906. Stockholmskällan.

Citizenship files: A citizenship file or dossier (Swe: Medborgarskapsakt) is the name of the document an alien uses to apply for Swedish citizenship and contains a lot of information about the applicant. The file also contains many annexes such as biography, references, certificates, etc. In the middle of the 1800s, these files contained very little information but in the 1900s, they are much more detailed. These files are available at the National Archives (Riksarkivet). Note, before 1951, alien women marrying Swedish men became Swedish citizens by the marriage. Therefore, there are no citizenship files for these women. Formerly, there were very few laws and ordinances regulating the control of aliens in Sweden. Deportations of aliens could be done for many reasons and two major reasons were whether the alien would be a burden to the poor relief or had a criminal record. Before 1860, when Sweden had a compulsory passport system, passports were the nation’s principal tool to control immigration. All aliens had to apply for an Entry Permit (Swe: Inresetillstånd) before coming to Sweden and no aliens were allowed to enter Sweden without such a permit. The compulsory passport system was abolished in 1860. However, aliens were still obliged to apply for an entry permit to pursue business activities here. Once they were here, they could freely travel in Sweden and even be employed. People sentenced to penal servitude or forced labor being on parole still had to apply for a domestic travel certificate after 1860. During World War I, 1914 - 1918, more people than ever fled from their home countries and many passed through Sweden. The increasing number of migrants, also “alien control” stepped up. In 1917, 57 years after the abolishment of the compulsory passport system, the requirement for passports was reintroduced in Sweden. So, to enter Sweden from abroad, passports were needed. Visa was required which had to be approved by Swedish authorities. The visa application could be refused. In 1918, the government ruled that aliens already resident in Sweden would have their right to live here be granted the right to live here reviewed. Resident aliens without a passport must apply for a residence book (Swe: Uppehållsbok). When an alien applied for Swedish citizenship the application included detailed information about the applicant and attached annexes such as biography, references, certificates, etc. When the application was processed by the authorities without finding anything preventing citizenship, the alien became a Swedish citizen. Before 1924, aliens also had to take an Oath of Allegiance (Swe: Tro och Huldhetsed). This then usually happened at a later time but it wasn’t until the alien had taken the oath he officially became a Swedish citizen. The Oath of Allegiance was a legal oath that had to be taken. By taking the oath, the alien promised to respect the Swedish constitution and the nation’s governance. The corresponding oath in the USA is called the Pledge of Allegiance and in the the UK Oath of Allegiance. The Swedish Oath of Allegiance (in Swedish): ”Jag N. N. lofwar och swär, wid Gud och Hans Heliga Evangelium, att jag städse skall wara min rätte Konung, den Stormäktigste Furste och Herre, N. N., Sweriges, Norges, Götes och Wendes Konung, samt det Kongl. Huset huld och trogen. Jag skall ock med lif och blod förswara det Konungsliga wäldet samt Riksdagens rättigheter; allt i öfwerensstämmelse med Rikets Grundlagar, dem jag till alla delar skall lyda och efterkomma. Detta lofwar jag på heder och samvete hålla, så sannt mig Gud hjelpe till lif och själ.”

Nationality

Formerly, a woman’s nationality was of no or very little interest to the authorities. Further, women’s civil rights were strictly limited compared to men’s rights. At the end of the 1800s, it was ruled that the citizenship of a married woman was to be based on the principle that the woman was a subsidiary character to her husband. This means that if a Swedish woman married an alien man she would automatically be assigned her alien man’s nationality. In other words, by marrying an alien living in Sweden she became an alien herself in her own country. The idea was to regard the family as a unity and the nationality of the head of the family (the husband) governed the nationality of his wife and children. If the husband for some reason was to be deported from Sweden, his Swedish-born wife and children were deported too. Further, if the husband died in Sweden and his Swedish-born wife subsequently wasn’t able to support herself and thereby regarded a burden to the poor relief she, as an “alien” might be deported from Sweden under the existing rules, even if she never been abroad. So, a woman living in Sweden, born to Swedish parents, marring an alien subject, might risk deportation from Sweden to her husband’s native country, even if she has never been there. Also, in 1917, Swedish women without a passport, married to alien men, were obliged to apply for a residence book in Sweden. The “residence book system” in Sweden was abolished in 1927 when a new Aliens Act was adopted. Aliens Act 1927 In the 1920s, several regulations were issued regarding Alien Control in Sweden. The many regulations resulted in a new law, the Aliens Act 1927 (Swe: Utlänningslagen 1927), effective from 1 January 1928. The Act was a temporary law valid until the end of 1932. The purpose of the Act was to prevent deleterious immigration to Sweden and to regulate aliens’ right to take up residence and employment in the nation. The most important change in this act was the introduction of the “Residence permit” (Swe: Uppehållstillstånd). Aliens now had to apply for a residence permit after 3 months stay in Sweden. The former “residence book” was thereby abolished. The validity of the 1927 Aliens Act expired at the end of 1932. However, in 1932, all political parties of the Swedish Parliament agreed to extend the 1927 Aliens Act for further 5 years due to the unstable situation in the world at the time, i.e. to the end of 1937. Aliens Act 1937 As mentioned above, the 1927 Aliens Act expired at the end of 1937 after being extended for 5 years in 1932. A bill for a new aliens act was raised in the Parliament in 1936 intended to strengthen and protecting the Swedish workers’ situation on the labor market versus aliens and to restrict freedom of trade for aliens in Sweden. The new law, the Aliens Act 1937, was passed in Parliament and one change in the new law was the visa requirement. All aliens traveling to Sweden had to apply for a visa before coming. Sweden’s neighboring countries were exempted, i.e. Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland. This new aliens act was also temporally valid for five years but was extended for three years in 1942, i.e. until the end of 1945. Citizenship Act 1951 In 1951, Sweden adopted a gender-neutral Citizenship Act. Before 1951, alien women marrying Swedish men became Swedish subjects by marriage and vice versa, i.e. Swedish women marrying alien men received the husbands’ citizenship. From 1951, alien citizens born or been growing up in Sweden could apply to the County Administrative Board in the current county to become Swedish citizens. Today’s Citizenship Act is based on the Principle of Descent (Swe: Härstamningsprincipen), i.e. the citizenship of the parents determines the citizenship of their children. It is possible to become Swedish citizens by birth, adoption, parent’s marriage (legitimation), or by applying (naturalization). Citizenship Act 2001 On 1 July 2001, Sweden adopted a new Citizenship Act which allows dual citizenship.

Images

Image Showing an Extract from the

Citizenship Ordinance 1858

Citizenship Ordinance regarding the terms and conditions for alien men’s admission as Swedish citizens. Stockholm Castle on 27 February 1858.