Denmark tightens citizenship requirements

Denmark, which earlier this year slashed benefits for asylum seekers, said Monday it is making it more difficult to acquire citizenship in the Scandinavian country.

"Acquiring Danish citizenship is something very special, and therefore it also reasonable that we now raise the bar for when a person can call themselves a Danish citizen," Integration Minister Inger Stojberg said in a statement.

Those wanting to become Danish nationals will have to meet tougher requirements on language skills, and be financially self-sufficient for four years and six months of the past five years, up from the current two years and six months.

Applicants will also have to score better on a current affairs test, answering correctly on at least 80 percent of questions instead of the current 73 percent.

For applicants who have a criminal record, the period of time that has to elapse since their conviction before they can apply for citizenship will be increased by 50 percent.
"There are too many people who have been granted citizenship who can't speak Danish," Astrid Krag, the integration spokeswoman for the Social Democrats, told news agency Ritzau.

Monday's announcement came after the minority Venstre Party government clinched a deal with the far-right Danish People's Party, the Conservatives, the libertarian Liberal Alliance and the Social Democrats to support such a bill in parliament.

The new regulations would come into force on October 15, Danish media reported.

On July 1, Denmark slashed benefits to asylum seekers to lower the number of refugees coming to the country.

Under the new rules, which came into effect in September, an asylum seeker without children receives 5,945 kroner (797 euros, $882) per month in benefits, almost half the 10,849 kroner they previously received.

Single parents arriving from a non-EU country receive 11,888 kroner per month compared to the previous 14,426 kroner.

Source: AFP