Denmark’s 2002 immigration law barred under-24s from sponsoring spouses

Evidence

Denmark led the way with legal change in July 2002 when a government elected on a strong anti-immigrant platform passed tough new immigration and asylum laws. Included in the package was the provision that no one under the age of twenty-four would be allowed to bring a spouse into the country, an amendment based on the logic that anyone under twenty-four is less able to resist family coercion to enter into marriage. From the age of twenty-four on, in order to bring a spouse into Denmark, an immigrant or a Danish-born applicant must demonstrate that he or she holds stronger ties to Denmark than to any other country. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 300

Categorization

• SHARE: For someone tracking European anti-marriage-migration policy — the 24-year age threshold and Denmark-ties test are concrete, dated reference points.
• ADDENDUM: Relates to the immodesty moral-panic article: another instance of a manufactured crisis (marriage migration) used to gate who belongs.