the nationality of the child will be considered as “unknown” and not as “stateless”, and the child will not benefit from facilitated access to Swedish citizenship as a stateless person.133 In cases where a child does not acquire nationality from the mother, the Citizenship Unit looks into the acquisition of nationality from the father. Contrary to the determination made by the Swedish Tax Agency, the Citizenship Unit does not consider it relevant whether paternity has been established or not. In all situations, whether the parents are married or not, whether the father resides lawfully in Sweden and whether paternity has been established, the assessment is based on information concerning the presumed father’s nationality and on whether the father can transfer his nationality in accordance with the nationality law of his country of nationality. Therefore, information given by the mother on the father’s nationality is seen as sufficient to assess the child’s nationality, and lack of established paternity does not lead to a conclusion that the child is stateless. If the child automatically acquires at birth the nationality of the assumed or claimed father, the child does not acquire Swedish nationality. This practice could lead to a situation where a child is incorrectly considered to have acquired the presumed father’s nationality, when the child in fact is stateless; such a child would then miss his or her possibility to acquire Swedish citizenship by notification. The differences in approach of the Swedish Tax Agency and the SMA in assessing the statelessness of a child are evident from a judgment of the Migration Court.134 In this case, a child was born in Sweden to a mother of Somali nationality who was not, at the time of the birth of the child, married. The child’s father was also a national of Somalia. The Swedish Tax Agency had not registered the child as a national of Somalia as the parents were not married and, according to their information, a child born to Somali nationals only acquires Somali citizenship if the parents are married. The parents then made an application to the SMA for the child to acquire Swedish citizenship, as the boy would otherwise remain stateless. The SMA, however, considered that the child had acquired Somali nationality at birth, and consequently was not stateless and could therefore not acquire Swedish nationality by notification in accordance with Section 6 of the Act on Swedish Citizenship. In the SMA’s opinion, a child of a man who is a national of Somalia always acquires Somali citizenship. The Migration Court referred to the Government Bill on the Act on Swedish Citizenship, which states that in cases where a child’s nationality has not been established, Section 6 shall not be applied. Only if the statelessness of a child has been established, can the child acquire Swedish nationality. The Court concluded that it was unclear whether the child had obtained Somali nationality, and that it had therefore not been established that the child had been stateless since birth. Consequently, the child could not acquire Swedish nationality by notification in accordance with Section 6. The Court referred to the Government Bill on the Act on Swedish Citizenship as a justification for its decision that Swedish citizenship should not be granted by notification. According to NGOs interviewed by the consultant as well as several of the authorities consulted, these types of cases are not uncommon and often concern children born to women of Somali nationality who are not married to the child’s father, or where the father does not reside in Sweden.135 40 133 Regeringens proposition (1999/2000: 147) Lag om svenskt medborgarskap, p. 39, which reads “Barn vars medborgarskap inte kunnat fastställas bör därför, enligt regeringens mening, inte omfattas av bestämmelsen om statslösa barns möjligheter till förvärv av svenskt medborgarskap. Dessa barn bör i stället omfattas av den föreslagna ordningen för barn med utländskt medborgarskap”, and telephone conversation with the SMA, 21 September 2012. 134 Förvaltningsrätten, Administrative Court in Malmö, UM 4636-11 E, 16 February 2012. 135 Telephone conversation with the Swedish Tax Agency, 10 September 2012; telephone conversation with the SMA, 21 September 2012; meeting with the Swedish Refugee Advice Centre on 19 September 2012; meeting with the NGO Sociala Missionen on 27 September 2012. M A P P I N G S TAT E L E S S N E S S I N S W E D E N