The rise of the citizenship tests

Date: 02/02/06

In quizzing Muslims about their attitudes to homosexuality and gender relations, the German state of Baden-W�rttemberg has become the latest authority in the EU to insist that foreigners must adapt to the customs of their adopted home if they are to be accepted as citizens.

Thirty questions are being put to Muslims who apply for citizenship in the southern Land under a measure introduced at the beginning of January. According to the interior ministry in Stuttgart, these are necessary to ascertain if would-be citizens share the values upheld by the German constitution. Critics have argued that this measure smacks of institutionalised Islamophobi. Faruk Sen from the Centre for Turkish Studies in Essen has argued that it is tantamount to "religious ostracism and racism".

Despite the controversy over the measure, it would come as little surprise if other regional or national governments in Europe emulated it. Over the past couple of years, there has been a growing trend for EU member states to impose onerous requirements on migrants wishing to stay permanently.

Franco Frattini, the European commissioner for justice, freedom and security, has suggested that some of these measures could contravene EU law.

In 2005, he was asked by the Dutch government to examine plans to shake up its approach to integrating foreigners, which is known in local parlance as the inburgering system.

At the time, the country's parliament was debating the proposed introduction of a test of Dutch language and culture for foreigners seeking citizenship. One aim of the test was to cut down on the number of 'import brides' where foreigners can become naturalised by marrying Dutch nationals.

Frattini argued that imposing the language test on the family members of EU citizens "seemed contrary" to a directive on the free movement of people approved by the Council of Ministers in 2004. The directive will enter into force on 30 April this year.

But the matter is complicated by case-law of the European Court of Justice.

In 2003, the court delivered its verdict in a case involving Hacene Akrich, a Moroccan, who married a British woman while living without authorisation in the UK.

In its ruling, the court said that even if somebody was not legally resident in an EU country at the time of marrying one of its citizens, the country must nevertheless respect the right to family life, as enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights. At the same time, though, it stated that there would be an abuse of the rights conferred under EU law if they were invoked in the context of "marriages of conveniences", where a spouse's sole intention was to circumvent immigration procedures.

Frattini's reservations notwithstanding, the Dutch parliament voted to introduce the language and culture tests in December. The tests are widely considered as difficult, with some analysts calculating it would take up to 350 hours of study to pass them.

Many Dutch politicians have taken issue with Frattini. Christian Democrat MEP Frederika Brepoels, for example, has contended that greater weight should be given to political efforts to address integration issues than to a "strictly judicial approach to the free movement of persons".

Other steps taken or being considered by member states include pre-embarkation courses (Denmark) and questionnaires on topics ranging from national history to how one should behave in a pub (the UK).

These nationality tests have an effect on other EU countries. Last month the Belgian home affairs minister Patrick Dewael discussed with his Dutch counterpart Greta Verdonk the phenomenon of Dutch citizens of foreign origin who settle temporarily in Belgium to bring over their families or partners under the less exacting Belgian rules and then move back to the Netherlands. The Dutch integration course is not required of those coming from another EU country.

Mirjam Dittrich, a justice and home affairs analyst with the European Policy Centre, said that if language tests were to be introduced, national authorities should at least offer tuition to those sitting them, as happens in the US. While the EU's powers might be limited in devising a common approach to integration, she believed that the Commission could help promote a debate on developing best practices.

Analysis feature reporting on the introduction of citizenship tests for immigrants in several Member States of the European Union, including the Netherlands and several Länder of Germany while others such as Denmark and the United Kingdom were contemplating such steps.