Iraq War commission to dig into past decisions
City well placed in competitiveness study
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14 - 19 April 2012 | Vol 15 Issue 15
BLACKOUT! Drugs, dance and defiance
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Denmark’s only English-language newspaper | cphpost.dk MOHAMMED ALJISHI
NEWS
Alleged increase in cross-border crime used in defence of border controls never existed
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NEWS
Happy happy, joy joy This time we’re not kidding: Danes are the best. If you don’t believe us, you must not read the British press
7 LIFESTYLE
Tick, tock
Time is running out for jailed activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja as Bahrain stonewalls Danish diplomatic efforts
Our new section gives you all the seasonal lifestyle advice you need. First up, gardener Toby Musgrave
Theatre for Anglophones Don’t speak Danish but want to enjoy the art scene? ‘Desdemona’ and ‘The Good Doctor’ are for you
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CHRISTIAN WENANDE Regulations are set to be eased a bit under the new government reform policy, but some argue it’s not enough
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ITH THE right-wing Dansk Folkeparti (DF) astutely leveraging its status as governmental support party over the past couple of years, Denmark’s immigration rules were decisively stiffened to a point where immigration from outside the EU became incredibly difficult. But the current government took office with a pledge to ease up on the strict regulations and are now making an attempt to honour those promises. New immigration laws are scheduled
to be implemented on May 15 for family reunification cases and on June 1 for cases involving permanent residence. Some of the more significant changes scheduled to come into effect are as follows: • The points system used in family reunification cases will be removed. The points system, which was ratified in 2011, has been a massive hindrance to family reunification in Denmark. • The immigration test ‘invandringsprøven’ will be removed. Anyone who currently wishes to immigrate under the umbrella of family reunification must take this test. • The economic safety net will be reduced from 100,000 kroner to 50,000 kroner. This is the amount the individual has to deposit to the
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the children’s fair 2012
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O THE C
join us in june at valbyparken for
F ENN’ ’S AIR 2 DR
COPENHA
Where expats, danes & their families come together to meet clubs for their kids to join Date in June is to be determined, so keep an eye on The Copenhagen Post for details
2 01
012 IR 2 FA
THE CHIL
i i i i ii Price: 25 DKK
ILDRENN’ ’S CH
New immigration laws set to kick in next month
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council as a bank guarantee, thereby illustrating that they will not be seeking social benefits. Additionally, the 50,000 will be structured in a way that it can be significantly reduced with the passing of Danish language tests. • The Danish test level needed to be passed will be lowered from Danish Test 2 (Prøve i Dansk 2) to Danish Test 1 (Prøve i Dansk 1) for permanent residence applicants. • To achieve permanent residence, applicants must have worked three out of the last five years instead of two years and six months out of the last three years, as the rules currently stand. The new regulations will also consider most educations to be the equivalent of full-time
work. This law will help keep more foreign students and professionals in Denmark. Additionally, the system in which applicants must amass 100 points through work, language and volunteer requirements will be removed. • As of now, applicants for citizenship must show that they have been self-supporting for four and a half out of the last five years. That will be changed to two and a half out of the last five years. Additionally, the Danish Test 3 (Prøve i Dansk 3) will be lowered to Danish Test 2 (Prøve i Dansk 2) and the difficult citizenship test, which even native Danes have trouble passing, will also be
Immigration continues on page 3
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