Citizenship policy is increasingly used by governments in rich countries to define migrants’ “integration expectations,” according to a landmark report on international migration published this week by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an international organisation based in Paris that promotes the market economy and global trade. The report, the organisation’s 50th annual international migration outlook, describes integration policy entering “a more constrained and politically contested phase.” It says “tight public budgets, pressure on housing and public services and weaker political appetite for broad-based integration investments have slowed reform and changed its character.”

Citizenship reforms in 2025-2026 across many of the OECD’s 38 member countries point to more stringent conditions, with strengthened requirements on “language proficiency, civic knowledge, fiscal contribution, residence duration and self-sufficiency,” the report says. Examples cited include the removal of the fast-track route to citizenship in Germany and higher requirements on knowledge of language and society in Sweden. The OECD estimates that over 3 million people acquired the nationality of a member country in 2005, with the largest number registered in the figures the report sets out.S1S3

Integration in the labour market remains the “principal objective” of integration policies. Mark Pearson, OECD Deputy Director of Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, said at the UK presentation of the report that “labour migration schemes are becoming more selective and integration policies are getting more and more focused on the very rapid entry in the labour market, particularly in the Nordic countries.” Civic integration is also becoming more prominent, with stronger requirements on language, civic knowledge and shared values, including a civic exam for first applications for multi-year residence permits in France and values and orientation courses introduced in Austria.S1S4

Efforts vary across countries. Pearson said there is a north-south gradient, with the Nordic countries generally making the greatest effort toward rapid labour market integration, as in Sweden, which is also considering an Integration Barometer. That survey would test trust in institutions, democratic participation, social networks, language use, belonging and perceptions of discrimination. He said the most striking recent policy change had been Spain’s effort to regularise a large number of migrants as a way to speed integration.S1