Since the tightening of the immigration laws by the Danish government in the 70s, have been able to migrate to Denmark. These laws, arguably the strictest among the EU countries were loosened a bit in the 80’s to allow for the guest worker program. In this scheme, foreign workers, mainly from eastern European countries were allowed into Denmark to fill low skill jobs and au pair arrangements.
The county’s negative population growth occasioned by one of the lowest birth rate resulted in an ageing population which could not fulfill the manpower requirements required to run the rapidly expanding economy. This is why the Danish government decided to introduce more schemes to attract foreign workers into the country. These schemes include the pay limit scheme, where work permits were granted to foreign workers who have gained employment in Denmark and earn a certain minimum annual wage. This made it vastly easy for people to migrate to Denmark.
The positive list is one of the aggressive measures taken by the Danish government to encourage immigrants to migrate to Denmark. In this scheme, certain professional fields facing a manpower shortage are included on a positive list. This gave professionals qualified for jobs offered in categories on the positive list an easier way to migrate to Denmark. The Danish government then had to address the issue of multinational companies wishing to employ foreign in their subsidiaries in Denmark. This was done through the corporate scheme. These professionals could then migrate to Denmark on the special work permits.
Despite the numerous reasons the Danish government give people o migrate to Denmark, it still isn’t easy for one to acquire Danish citizenship. Citizenship can only be granted to immigrants after a series of stringent provisions have been fulfilled. First the person must have been a resident in Denmark continually for the past 9 years. Alternatively naturalization can be granted if the immigrant marries a Danish citizen for more than 4 and half years. Special provisions are also included for refugees who migrate to Denmark for fear of being persecuted in the home countries.
Summary
Getting a work permit to live and work in Denmark is not a grantee that you can permanently migrate to Denmark. Acquiring Danish citizenship is a whole new kettle of fish. You have to be carefully not to do anything during your stay to jeopardize your chances of naturalization.
