[Leica] Resident WAS Belgium (WAS: New topic - what makes "it" newsworthy?)

[dlridings at gmail.com (Daniel Ridings)]

On Jan 12, 2008 12:10 PM, Jayanand Govindaraj <jayanand@gmail.com> wrote:
> In the meantime non
> - citizens of Indian origin have been issued a PIO (Persons of Indian
> Origin) card, which entitles them to practically all benefits, including
> entry as a resident, i.e. without visas (which is usually all people want),
> except that they are not allowed to vote.

Jayanand,

That sounds like the situation in Sweden before dual citizenship was
allowed, with a slight difference.

I had permanent residency. I never applied for it, but they got tired
of seeing me every 6 months and just gave it to me. That's another
story if anyone is interested.

With permanent residency I had almost all benefits of citizenship
except I couldn't vote in parliamentary elections. I could vote in
local (county) elections, but not on the national level. That suited
me just fine.

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