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Parliament passes bill making it easier for foreign spouses to come to Denmark

Denmark's parliament on Thursday voted through a law which will make it easier for citizens to bring foreign spouses to Denmark, by, among other things, halving the financial security they need to provide.

Published: 31 May 2024 10:05 CEST

Parliament passes bill making it easier for foreign spouses to come to Denmark

A father with two children. Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

MPs from the Social Democrat, Liberal and Moderate parties – the three parties in Denmark’s ruling coalition – all voted in favour of the bill, as did those from the Red Green Alliance, Socialist Left, Social Liberal and Alternative parties.

MPs from the Denmark Democrats, Danish People’s Party, Liberal Alliance, and Conservative parties all voted against, meaning the bill passed with 78 votes in favour and 29 against.

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In a statement posted on its website on Thursday, the Danish Immigration Service said that the rules would be applied to applications made after April 11th, and would start to apply from July 1st.

When the new law comes into force, the bankgaranti that Danes who want to bring their foreign spouses to Denmark need to leave with their municipality, will be halved from 114,000 kroner to 57,000 kroner (both 2024 level).

The Danish language requirements for Danes who apply for family reunification for their partners will also be “considered fulfilled” if the Danish partner has spent five years or more in full-time employment or been self-employed in a job that has “significantly involved communication in Danish”.

Formerly, they needed to provide academic records which some Danes had either lost or never received.

The new law will give Danes returning to Denmark following several years abroad, the same rights to bring their families to Denmark as foreigners who have received residency via a work permit, so long as the job they have received in Denmark would qualify them for a work permit under one of Denmark’s many work permit schemes.

Finally, in a section designed to stop the measure seem like a relaxation of immigration rules, the bill changes the law so that anyone charged or indicted for a certain type of offences, will in future not be issued with permanent residence.

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Copenhagen partially spares city’s forest kindergartens from closure

A City Council (Borgerrepræsentation) meeting at Copenhagen Municipality on Tuesday resulted in 14 of 33 kindergartens being spared after they had earlier been earmarked for closure.

Eight of the kindergartens will be closed, the council decided, with the fate of the remaining 11 either undecided or coming down to a partial closure or downscale.

Closures will take effect “as far as possible” from May 2025, so that the oldest children at kindergartens will not have to find a new short-term place before starting school, the municipality said in a statement.

The decision on which institutions would be closed was sent to the City Council after it failed to pass a lower committee, partly due to campaigns by parents against the closures during the hearing stage. The City Council or Borgerrepræsentation is the top decision-making organ in the city government.

Among the kindergartens which faced closure were several so-called udflytterinstitutioner, literally “excursion institutions” but probably better known as forest kindergartens.

These kindergartens, which revolve around a daily routine in which small children spend the majority or entirety of their time outside, including during winter, have gained the attention of international media in years past and been praised for their potential benefits to children.

One such kindergarten is the “Skovhytten” forest group, which forms part of the Jacob Holms Minde daycare institution in southern district Amager.

Skovhytten was set for closure under the initial plan but Jacob Holms Minde will now be subject to “dialogue with management, staff and the board to investigate how financing can be optimised”, the Copenhagen Municipality statement read.

That means it is not listed among the closing kindergartens but will be “affected to a varying degree”.

Other ‘excursion institutions’ will still close under the revised plan, however.

Elisabetta Taschini, a parent of one of the children who attends Skovhytten, told The Local she was glad the forest kindergarten had been kept open but was sad to see others being closed.

The decision by the City Council “shows that they understood and supported the concept of a full-time nature kindergarten, and what it represents for a city-area like Amagerbro,” she said.

“As parents, we now look forward to working with the leadership to make our kindergarten more sustainable financially, while keeping the great pedagogical offer available to everyone,” she added.

As previously reported by The Local, the 33 institutions across the capital faced either complete closure or a reduction in their capacity in a cost-cutting exercise.

The closures are necessary to cut capacity and costs due to a declining number of children living in the capital, Copenhagen Municipality’s children and youth committee has said. According to the municipality, some 3,000 fewer children live in the city compared to four years ago. The city’s forecasts predict a surplus of childcare places in several parts of the city over the next 5-8 years.

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