The aim of this article is to use courses in civic orientation for newly arrivedadult migrants in Sweden as the empirical entry point from which toinvestigate whether, and if so, how, civic values are tied to the Swedish nationthrough specific discourses and narratives. With the help of a frameworkthat brings together theorisations of the discursive construction of thenation with the notions of the chronotope and ‘social narratives’, the articledemonstrates how narratives within civic orientation are characterised byspecific spatio-temporal moves that discursively construct Sweden as anation-state. Such national chronotopes are not innocuous but are part of arhetoric of nationalism that constructs a linear and comprehensive story ofprosperity and superiority, not least vis-à-vis some other geographical areasin the world. As such, the analysis seeks to contribute to the burgeoningscholarship on civic orientation programmes by offering further empiricalevidence of the shapes such programmes take, and how civic values becomenationalised. With the help of the notion of the chronotope, the article alsoseeks to add some fresh perspectives to scholarship on nationalism andothering by showing mundane spatio-temporal moves in the production of a‘national imaginary’ (Calhoun 2017).