Tucker Comparative Migration Studies (2018) 6:29 most noted that they had never considered leaving the country to try to secure citizenship elsewhere. After 2011 they realised that they had only been temporarily tolerated in Syria and had to try and find a more permanent solution to their refugee-ness and statelessness elsewhere: the search for citizenship began. When asked the question ‘Why Sweden?’, nearly all the participants in the country stated that it was the possibility of being able to quickly and easily resolve their statelessness through the acquisition of Swedish citizenship that was the most influential pull factor. Until the introduction of the temporary asylum laws in 20162, Sweden had very liberal naturalisation criteria and granted permanent residence to refugees as well as those granted subsidiary or humanitarian protection (Brochmann & Seland, 2010; Tucker, 2017). Refugees only had to reside in the country for 4 years to apply for citizenship and there were no naturalisation criteria based on language proficiency, passing citizenship tests, integration assessments or proving self-sufficiency for refugees to meet (Migrationsverket, n.d.). While in other states refugees can acquire citizenship in a shorter timeframe, for example with only 3 years residence in Greece or Hungary (GLOBALCIT, 2017), to benefit from facilitated access to citizenship, one must be recognised as a refugee. Recognition rates, as well as the granting of refugee status, rather than subsidiary or humanitarian protection, are very low in these states (Eurostat, 2017c). For many participants, this decision to head for Sweden was made when they were in Syria. As such they may be understood as being in an “anticipatory refugee scenario” (Kunz, 1973). This is because they had time to research destination countries, draw on social networks and secure the required resources before they fled. As was the case of Ahmed in Sweden: “I read a lot about the options I had and I asked people I knew that were living here [Sweden]. People gave me good feedback in terms of the life here, the treatment of refugees and migrants, that kind of thing. That’s how I made my decision.... My first criteria was getting permanent residency that would eventually get me citizenship and a passport that allowed me to move around freely.” A few cases however could be understood as being in an “acute refugee scenario” (Kunz, 1973): fleeing without having time to prepare. Those in this situation claimed that the fear of being ‘put on the list’ of the authorities, was the tipping point that lead to their unplanned/earlier than expected flight. As Ghalia, a medical worker from Yarmouk, recalled when she was trying to enter the camp to go to work: “I was at a checkpoint near the camp and one of the Shabeeha [demeaning name for pro Assad militants] called out my name. He said to me, ‘You’re a doctor and you’re trying to go into the camp to help the Free Army.’ I was afraid that my name had become on a list, so I never tried again”. In these cases, it was only after they had fled that the decision was made to try to reach Sweden. After being arbitrarily detained in Greece due to his statelessness, Ayham recalls the impact of his statelessness on his decision making: Page 7 of 17