Danish citizenship: A gift you should not take for granted

Abstract

For the hawks in the Danish debate on naturalization, Danish citizenship is not a human right or something that you can earn by living up to a specific set of criteria. Rather, it is something that members of parliament bestow on foreigners as a benevolent act, if the members are convinced that the foreigners are genuinely committed to Danish values and do not constitute a threat to democracy. In the hawks’ view, the members of parliament are sovereign and should be able to suspend all principles in the defense of democracy and liberal rights. Thereby the hawks repeat the dilemma of militant democracy: Does the defense of democracy turn democracy into its opposite?