This presentation focuses upon conceptualizations of languages and identities in the specific institutionalized arena that emerged in the post-world war II period with the specific intention of teaching Swedish language to adult immigrants in the nation-state of Sweden. The study presented here draws upon empirical material from the Project KIK, Categorization of Identities and Communication that is interested in both the social practices and the discourses that frame a tailored education for adult immigrants in Sweden. In this text we present a study that focuses upon the development of the educational system ‘Swedish for immigrants’ over time. Our specific interest here relates to accounting for how categorizations are used and what, if any, kinds of categories – pertaining to literacies, languages and identities – emerge in national and local policy documents since the 1960s. Taking ethnomethodological and post-colonial points of departure, we are currently analyzing how categorizations account for and simultaneously shape (i) the content of language education, (ii) membership into the education system, (iii) future possibilities in the labor market and studies, and (iv) membership in the nation state as a citizen. The education for adult immigrants and new citizens can be understood both as a demand by the modern state as well as an immigrants’ or a new citizens’ right for developing literacy and language skills required in the new society of residence. Focusing upon categories from sociohistorical perspectives allow for understanding the social organization and institutional means that enable society to process citizenship issues. The complex relationship between empowerment of the immigrants, on the one hand, and the need for integration or assimilation into society on the other, becomes visible though the analysis of empirical data that spans over half a century.