Language testing plays a crucial role in migration governance in Europe, serving as a gatekeeper for access to citizenship, residency, studies, and employment.
Contrary to prevailing notions of language learning as a post-settlement activity, this article investigates how policies and practices of language testing not only regulate but fuel mobility, prompt border-crossings, and defer immigration to the intended country of settlement. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with participants in a high-stakes Swedish language test administered in both Sweden and abroad, and draws from literature on migration infrastructures, language testing, bordering, and mobility (Xiang & Lindquist 2014; Roever & McNamara 2006; Yuval-Davis, Wemyss & Cassidy 2019; Fortier 2021; Bonjour & Duyvendak 2020).
The paper illustrates instances of temporary settlement in countries other than the intended destination while waiting to pass language tests. This often involves engagement with private companies for language tuition, employing teachers who were previously migrants in Sweden. Furthermore, the paper shows how external barriers to mobility, such as Brexit or the cost of other immigration-related tests, have redirected migration plans from English-speaking countries to a smaller linguistic region that requires a significant investment in language learning.
The paper draws attention to how language tests not only prevent but also instigate mobility, and how linguistic integration can be a transnational process involving multiple border crossings and private companies. This, in turn, partly counters the nation-building intentions of the state, which places an increased emphasis on civic knowledge and Swedish values in their publicly funded courses.
Nina Carlsson is a visiting research fellow at the Centre for Advanced Migration Studies, University of Copenhagen, and a postdoctoral researcher in Political Science at Uppsala University. Her postdoctoral project ‘Everyday bordering through language requirements’ (funded by the Swedish Research Council from 2023 to 2025), investigates how language and civic knowledge tests are used within migration governance in Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. Her other research interests revolve around national minorities, Indigenous peoples, and the far right. Her work has been published in journals such as Ethnic and Racial Studies, Nations and Nationalism and Nationalities Papers.
Anne-Marie Fortier is Professor Emeritus in Sociology at the Lancaster University.