DIVIDED LOYALTY AMONG IMMIGRANTS WITH DUAL CITIZENSHIP: A CASE STUDY OF IMMIGRANTS IN MALMO WITH DUAL CITIZENSHIP

Abstract: The expansion of globalization continues to increase the rate at which people move across borders, work and live in countries different from their countries of origin. To ease the migration and integration of immigrants, several countries now offer dual citizenship to their citizens and immigrants willing to naturalize in their country. This has led to a substantial increase in the number of people holding dual citizenship globally. While this has achieved the purpose of immigrant integration, there is a popular concern that it might lead to a case of divided loyalty where individuals with dual citizenship show more loyalty to one of their states than to the other. In light of this, this study explored the loyalty of citizens in Malmo, Sweden to Sweden as their host country and their respective countries of origin.   This study adopted a cross-sectional qualitative survey methodology. Eight inhabitants of Malmo, Sweden were recruited as the study participants using a snowballing sampling technique. A face-to-face interview session guided by a semi-structured interview guide was used as the data collection instrument. The loyalty of study participants was evaluated using four metrics including self-identification, social activity, economic activity and political activity involvement following the communitarianism theory of citizenship.    The socio-demographic profile of the study participants showed that four of them emigrated from Asia, three from Africa and one from Europe. Five of the study participants were male and the other three were female. Seven of them were also employed and only one was unemployed. In addition, all the participants have spent at least six years residing in Sweden.  The results of the study showed that the majority of dual citizens in Sweden prefer to identify with their home country than to identify as a Swede. Also, dual citizens in Malmo, Sweden engage in social, economic and political activities in Sweden more than they do in their home countries. The study concluded that dual citizens in Sweden are more loyal to their host country (Sweden) than they are to their host country. However, this finding mostly applies to immigrants from developing countries as they are the only ones involved in this study as study participants.