Monday 27 April 2015

CITIZENSHIP

Denmark is getting itself into a right pickle about foreigners. On the one hand, it is worried silly about asylum seekers, economic migrants and other undesirables entering the country and not integrating. On the other, its rich but infertile couples are busily adopting Chinese, Vietnamese, African and Columbian babies whenever they can. And the authorities are giving out citizenship left, right and centre, and not to people like me (who don't need it, since I am already an E.U. citizen, and who wouldn't want it anyway).

Figures for the latter make my point. The list of new citizens is decided on twice a year, and the figure for the first half of 2015 is 3,314. That is more than twice what it was in the second half of last year, and almost five times what it was in the first half of 2013.

Doubling for the full year, and it is still only around 0.1% of Denmark's current population. However, new citizens tend to be younger than average, have more babies than average, and are darker skinned than average. Over time, this is going to have a big effect on what it means to be a Dane.

Walter Blotscher

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