With governments across Europe tightening citizenship and residency requirements, language and country knowledge tests are often framed as measures of integration. But are governments really talking to domestic political audiences?
Immigration has become a pivotal issue in European politics in recent years, intersecting with debates on everything from housing, law and order, pensions and healthcare systems.
Polling data shows that voters across the continent want greater immigration controls but aren’t completely anti-immigration and that many young Europeans are supporting anti-immigration parties.
The toughening of language and integration tests has become increasingly common, especially when tied to crackdowns on citizenship rights and residency requirements.
Most European countries require some knowledge of the local language to obtain permanent residence or citizenship. Others are introducing such policies or toughening up the level required.
READ ALSO: When do new French language test requirements come into force?
In 2024, France passed a law requiring French language tests for certain types of residency card as well as toughening the level required for citizenship. Italy started to demand a language test when applying for naturalisations by marriage from 2018.
In 2025, Norway announced changes to the language requirements for foreigners seeking permanent residence permits, moving from A1 level to A2-level or higher.
The Sweden government is currently moving ahead with new language requirements for citizenship amid wider and controversial changes to citizenship.
But as immigration policy and rhetoric moves rightward — Spain’s leftist government aside — The Local asks: are European language tests really a beneficial integration policy or just political posturing for domestic voters?
Of course, speaking the local language (or at least committing to learning it) is an important step to properly integrating in a new country. It makes settling in and socialising easier. Often, making an effort to learn can also endear you to locals and civil servants you need help from when setting up abroad.
According to a recent report by the Pew Research Centre, many Europeans feel that speaking the local language is what makes someone ‘truly’ belong in a country.
In Europe, Hungary has the largest share of respondents (74 percent) saying that speaking the local language is key for national identity.
France and the Netherlands follow with 64 percent. Greece stands at 63 percent, Germany at 62 and Poland at 60 percent.
In Italy and the UK the share was 58 percent and in Sweden 52, although it reached 83 percent for supporters of the hard-right party Sweden Democrats.
READ ALSO: Q&A – What’s Norway’s stricter language requirement for permanent residency?
It’s clear that many in Europe want immigration controls and see language skills as important to social integration.
What is unclear, however, is whether toughening language requirements and tying them to residency or citizenship rights actually leads to better social integration. And if they don’t, why are governments doing it?
Maarten Vink, Director of Global Citizenship research at the European University Institute and Co-Director of the Global Citizenship Observatory, tells The Local: “There is a clear European trend towards introducing language and knowledge requirements for citizenship. Most, if not all European countries now require formal language tests, and often also knowledge tests.
“There are some very worrying examples where countries have increased the language requirement for citizenship to B2 level, such as in France, which in my view are really prohibitive. Denmark remains one of the strictest cases, together with Austria, which is also planning to make B2 the standard requirement”.
More selective requirements also have an impact on applications, he adds.
“There is ample evidence that citizenship tests… have a strong selective effect on the number of successful citizenship applications. The evidence points in a clear direction: fewer immigrants become citizens and those who do take longer to get there.”
Despite governments in countries such as Sweden, Austria and France claiming that language skills or country knowledge tests are to ensure better social integration, Vink says otherwise: “Tests are not meant to strengthen integration and there is no evidence that they do.”
He also notes that tightening language and integration requirements for citizenship and residency is nothing new, despite the current political climate.
“This trend is not recent but goes back at least twenty years in Europe,” he explains. “The main difference is that in countries such as Sweden, which until now had no language or country knowledge requirements, these are also introduced.”
But there’s a clear political angle to these decisions, many feel.
In both Sweden and Portugal (where applicants must now prove knowledge of Portuguese language, culture, history and constitutional rights, Vink notes) he feels “these restrictive requirements have been adopted with support of far-right parties”.
In that sense, might we understand ever more demanding citizenship requirements as political messaging rather than integration policy?
“These changes are introduced clearly to signal to domestic audiences that governments are tough on immigration,” Vink says.
Looking to a future with few pro-migration governments left in Europe, it seems this trend of toughening citizenship and residency rules could continue.
“These requirements are likely here to stay,” Vink adds. “But the main discussion should be about the question: if these tests exist, what are reasonable required levels of language and knowledge?”
“Of course we want all long-term residents of a country to be fully fluent in the national language… But there is a clear trade-off. Passing a formal test is easier for those with high levels of educational attainment, and much more challenging for those with lower levels of schooling. It also matters at what age migrants arrive in a country.”
“So the system should be designed in such a way that language learning is encouraged and facilitated, but with sufficient flexibility for different capabilities. Policy-makers should avoid a one-size-fits-all approach, certainly when setting very high levels, such as B1 or even B2 language requirements,” he adds.
READ ALSO: Which countries in Europe impose language tests for residency permits?
