Nordic brothers before strange others. Pan-national boundary making in the post-war naturalization policies of the Nordic countries

The naturalization policies of Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway differentiate between non-Nordic and Nordic citizens. Nordic citizens can obtain citizenship in other Nordic countries by notification, and the residency requirement for naturalization by application is considerably lower for Nordic citizens than it is for non-Nordic applicants. The privileges of Nordic citizens in the naturalization policies of the Nordic countries is a heritage of nineteenth-century pan-Scandinavianism, continued and expanded upon with post-war Nordism. Nordism, the idea of a common Nordic culture and community, has ideologically underpinned the establishment of a pan-national Nordist citizenship regime that constructs ethno-culturally close Nordic brothers as more belonging in the Nordic countries than alien, non-Nordic', others. The article explores change and continuity in pan-national Nordic boundary making by analysing the historical interplay between ideas on Scandinavian and Nordic kinship and naturalization policy in the Nordic countries.