A majority wants to make it harder to become a citizen after criticism of language tests

Foreigners can obtain Danish citizenship without having to prove they can speak Danish, and that needs to change.

The government parties the Moderates, SF, and the Radicals are among the parties that now want the minister to scrutinize the tests. (Photo: © Thomas Traasdahl, Ritzau Scanpix)

By Ritzau ([email protected]) 44 minutes ago

The test system regarding the language requirement for obtaining Danish citizenship does not work well enough.

That is the view of a majority in the Danish Parliament, including the government parties SF, the Moderates, and the Radicals.

This is reported by Jyllands-Posten, which has uncovered that the language requirement for citizenship can be met without foreigners actually being able to speak Danish.

"I simply don't understand it. That they design Danish tests in this way puzzles me," says SF's member of the Parliament's Naturalisation Committee, Kirsten Normann Andersen.

She refers to the fact that Jyllands-Posten has described how foreigners, for example, can obtain Danish citizenship without having to document that they can speak Danish. Furthermore, foreigners can also obtain Danish citizenship by memorizing the tests before the Danish exam.

Kirsten Normann Andersen wants the Minister for Immigration and Integration, Morten Bødskov (Social Democrats), to investigate how the tests can be changed.

She has noticed that there are citizens who have obtained Danish citizenship but do not speak Danish, and that "this could be the explanation, and that is not good enough."

The Moderates' political spokesperson, Mohammad Rona, calls it "concerning and frightening that one can pass the test without actually knowing Danish."

The Radicals' member of the Naturalisation Committee, Magnus Georg Jensen, similarly says that changes must be made in this area.

Bødskov tells Jyllands-Posten that the requirements are being looked into further.

"Therefore, it will also be part of the negotiations whether we can tighten the requirements for Danish language skills when we are to make a new agreement on the conditions for obtaining citizenship," he says to the media.

The Denmark Democrats' spokesperson on naturalisation, Ulrik Knudsen, is not impressed.

"The government intends to hand out citizenships left and right, and it doesn't even have control over whether those it gives citizenship to can speak Danish. This is just one of many reasons why the current distribution of citizenships should be put on hold," he says in a written comment to Ritzau.

The granting of citizenships is a very hot political topic at Christiansborg these days. The focal point is a bill that next year will make 2,055 foreigners Danish citizens.

The government announced in October that a screening model is to be developed to examine whether people applying for Danish citizenship hold anti-democratic views.

However, an expert group tasked with examining the possibilities for a screening model for citizenship applicants is delayed in its work. It is expected to be completed in March 2027.

The government has decided to introduce the bill concerning the 2,055 people before a screening model is ready.

The most recent grant of citizenships coincided with the calling of the parliamentary election held in March this year, and the bill for the 2,055 people's citizenship was therefore postponed.

Several parties – for example, the Danish People's Party and the Liberal Alliance – have however pointed out that a number of people should, according to the parties, be removed from the bill because the individuals have, in the parties' view, "demonstrated anti-democratic attitudes."

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