Sunday, September 10th, 2023, Denmark’s Fair Citizenship campaign led by policy advisor, Aisha Law, gathered outside Christiansborg parliament to protest laws restricting citizenship rights to people born and raised in Denmark to foreign parents. That same Sunday was also citizenship day, a bi-annual tradition established in 2006 to celebrate those who have become citizens of Denmark.

An individual can obtain Danish citizenship in 2023 by naturalization if he meets the criteria of a minimum residence under a valid visa for 9 consecutive years, financial independence for the last 2 years, no public debt, pass the Citizenship test, no criminal history, and worked the last 3½ years full time out of the past four before applying.

The last criteria is where young people are getting left behind. Education does not count towards working time, meaning those people who have lived and attended school in Denmark through the entirety of their childhood fail to meet the criteria as it is impossible to study full time and work full time in Denmark. This means a child who arrives in Denmark at the age of eight wouldn’t meet the bare minimum requirements for citizenship until the age of 28 at the soonest.

This creates a divide between those who are able to apply for citizenship to Denmark after the bare minimum and those who have lived all their lives in the country for their entire lives but cannot access the same right. According to the English language newspaper, the Local, the number of people who reside in Denmark, but are not Danish citizens, has increased from 1.9 percent in 1980 to 10.5 percent today. That means around half a million people living in Denmark today are not Danish Citizens, and this number includes people born and raised here as well. (Local, 2023)

Radikale Venstre’s Vice-chairman, Samira Nawa, and Immigration and integration spokesman, Christian Friis Bach wrote an opinion piece of for the Jylland- Posten:
“The one hand, the immediate enthusiasm for the many new citizens who, with smiles, tears of joy and high spirits, have received passports and papers for Denmark. On the other hand, the idea of the more than 10 per cent of the population who are without Danish citizenship and for whom the red-beet-coloured passport is far on the horizon.” (Nawa & Bach, 2023)

Passports come with a sense of patriotic belonging but also a sense of security that does not come with the political landscape in Denmark.

“They are foreigners if their parents have not taken root in Denmark and do not have a right to be here. Denmark is not their home and cannot be. They have to go home to the country where their parents are from, even if they aren’t familiar with it,” according to then Dansk Folkparti spokesperson Marie Krarup in 2022.

This, while the current ratio of people with the ability to vote in elections in the city of Copenhagen alone was 1 in 7.

The divide on loosening citizenship requirements seems to deepen as the political landscape becomes more and more turbulent in the post 9-11 world. This has been seen as the start of the rise of immigration politics as a main point on the international stage, as well as in the Danish Political Arena. Post 9-11 is used literally in this context, as Denmark held the
next General Election the November following the American Terror Attacks in September 2001. (Chishti, 2020)

With Media attention shining light towards the citizenship dilemma and suggestions of less ambitious reforms such as making time spend in higher education or in paid internships count towards the work requirement, this issue will not be fading away. Campaign groups hope to have a reform in some form in parliament by summer 2024.

References

• (news@thelocal.com), T. L. (2023, September 11). Danish-born non-citizens call for change to country’s citizenship rules. The Local Denmark.
• Hunter, L. (2022, January 20). Thousands of Danish-born denied passport under Tough Citizenship Law. The Copenhagen Post.
• Immigration-Denmark.com. (2023, August 30). How to obtain Danish citizenship - 2023 application procedure. Immigration Denmark
• Muzaffar Chishti, C. B. M. C. (2020, August 26). Post-9/11 policies dramatically alter the U.S. Immigration Landscape. migrationpolicy.org
• Nawa, S., & Bach, C. F. (2023, September 10). De Er Danske I Hjertet, men fremmede på papiret. Jyllands-posten
• Passport Index - Global Mobility Intelligence. (n.d.). Global Passport Power Rank 2023: Passport index 2023. Global Passport Power Rank 2023 Passports of the world ranked by their total mobility score
• Rao, D. (2020, October 4). Why do foreigners in Denmark want to become Danish?. The Local Denmark.