Tucker Comparative Migration Studies (2018) 6:29 “All my decisions since that day [of leaving the detention centre] — and even before — were taken with one issue in mind: what’s the fastest way to get a citizenship and how can I get a passport? In Sweden or anywhere else. I wanted to get citizenship.” The importance of citizenship for some of the participants was highlighted when they noted that in choosing Sweden they were sacrificing the possibility of better utilising human or social capital in other countries. “The most important thing here is, why Sweden? Why was Sweden my final destination? Because it’s the fastest country to give citizenship and a passport. So, for example, why didn’t I go to England? I speak English and it’s a good country... [B]ut why did I chose Sweden? Because in England it’s incredibly difficult to get citizenship compared with Sweden.” (Mohammed, Sweden). “The environment in Austria and the work opportunities in Germany are a lot better than here. We came here [Sweden] so that we could get citizenship and so that we could travel.” (Ahmed, Sweden). Several participants noted that resolving their statelessness was not their only concern, but by using family reunification they would also be able to bring their family members over to resolve their statelessness as well. “For me citizenship was the most important thing. If I don’t get that, then I couldn’t bring my son out and then he could get citizenship.” (Ayham, Sweden). Only one participant, Ghalia, claimed that while Sweden was her first choice, she would also have been willing to seek asylum in Germany. “Four of us took a car, with the driver it was five, just driving directly from Italy to Sweden. It wouldn’t have had a problem if we’d been caught in Germany and had to stay there, it made no difference to me.” In comparison to Sweden, Germany has much more restrictive naturalisation criteria. This includes 8 years residency in the country (with exceptions), language proficiency, passing citizenship tests and proving self-sufficiently for oneself and ones’ family (Asylum Information Database, n.d.). Half the participants in Germany, who intended to reach Sweden, Norway or The Netherlands, described access to citizenship as one of the main factors in choosing their intended destination. Tasneem, whose father was stopped in Germany and joined him through family reunification, recalls her families’ reasoning in trying to get one member to Sweden: “He [my father] didn’t choose Germany. He wanted to go to Sweden... — you know, Sweden was famous for Palestinian people from Syria... On the way to Sweden, the police caught him in Nuremberg in the south of Germany and he couldn’t go on. They took all the money he had and he had no money to travel to Sweden.” Tasneem goes on to explain why Sweden was ‘famous’ for PRS: Page 8 of 17