Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/01/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Just to clarify: in order to combat forced marriages which were/are prevalent among certain ethnic groups, Denmark has indeed instituted a 24-year rule. If a Danish citizen wants to marry a non-resident who is under 24 and wants to bring him/her to Denmark, a test is applied to determine whether the couple, jointly, have a stronger connection to Denmark or to the other country. If the couple has a stronger connection to the other country, then the foreign spouse will not get a residence permit until s/he is 24. If both parties already have legal residence in Denmark, the rule does not apply. The law is applied equally regardless of nationality. A couple of years ago the son of a government minister who had been studying in the US for several years was unable to bring his American wife into the country because she had no prior connection with Denmark, and he had lived in the US for several years, and so they were judged to have a stronger connection with the US than with Denmark. It is hard to say what is reactionary and what is not. The whole issue of how to deal with especially Muslim immigrants has been a deep dilemma for the Danish left for several years; on one hand, they want to be progressive, multicultural and liberal with respect to immigrants' rights, but on the other hand they find themselves unwittingly supporting truly reactionary practices such as forced marriages, the burka, oppression of women etc. In the most recent election in November the most extreme left-wing party had a female candidate who wore the hijab and supported sharia law, including the death penalty (obviously, when speaking to non-Muslims she waffled a bit on all that), something that is anathema to most Danes, not just left-wing ones. She is widely judged to have cost her party a significant number of votes. Nathan On 12-jan-2008, at 15:10, Daniel Ridings wrote: > > Denmark is different. > > A lot of Danes move from Denmark to Malm?, just across the water. It > only takes them 20 minutes to get to downtown Copenhagen from where > they live in Sweden. They move there because Denmark (probably the > most reactionary country in Europe) does not allow its citizens to > marry with non-Danes until they are of a certain age (24? 25? 26?). > > So Danes that fall in love outside the Danish norms move to Sweden > where their marriages are recognized. > > But in doing so, the Danish citizens lose their right to vote. So they > can work and pay taxes in Denmark, but they can't sleep with whoever > they want or vote. > > Such is life. > > Daniel > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > Nathan Wajsman nathan@nathanfoto.com General photography: http://www.nathanfoto.com http://www.greatpix.eu http://www.frozenlight.eu Picture-A-Week: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog