There I was last
Wednesday in a sports hall in Frederiksberg with many other foreigners, sitting
on a chair, that was not designed by Arne Jacobsen, behind a desk that was
slightly too high for my size and took the Danish citizenship test, indfødsretsprøven.
Indfødsretsprøven
is one of the requirements for a Danish citizenship application. It is given
twice a year composed of 45 multiple choice questions: 35 of them is from a reading/study
material on Danish history, culture, politics, life … (243 pages long for this instance), 5
of them are from contemporary Danish news, and 5 of them are on Danish values. You
have 45mins for it. To pass, you have to answer at least 36 out of 45 correctly,
while also answering at least 4 out of 5 of the Danish value questions
correctly. In the previous iteration of the exam, only 47.2% of the examiners
passed.
The last three
weekends in May, I spent at least half of my time studying for the test. Two of
my ballpoint pens died in the process. My goal was to be done with all the reading
by Sunday before the test, so that I have some time to do the previous tests
(last 12 are available online) for practice.
When I sat down that
Sunday morning to do a practice test, I was full of self-confidence based on
carefully studying the reading material, my overall knowledge of the world
history, and all the Danish books, TV, films, news I have consumed since I
moved to Denmark. Up until the last part of the test, the 5 Danish value
questions, that confidence stayed intact. Then, my body started experiencing
something I wasn’t expecting. I did a second test, the same reaction. It was like receiving aggression.
After that second
test, I found myself on the couch crying. (It was one of those Tori Amos Little Earthquakes
moments.) I guess the baggage of decades of EU-Turkey relations was coming out
of me, the person whose childhood aligned with the period Turkey tried entering
EU the most. After that cry, I was able to emotionally detach and do the rest
of the practice tests without issues.
The Danish
values part of the exam primarily targets people who come from non-Western and
Muslim-majority backgrounds, which includes me. According to some Danish
politicians, we have higher chances of not aligning with Danish values
(whatever that means), so that part of the test was introduced in 2021. Not
sure how effective a test could be on this front, anyone can answer in
opposition to what they believe to pass a test, but maybe I am being an
arrogant academic here.
If you look at
the questions, themes are violence against women, child brides, forced
marriages, democratic values, press freedom, personal freedom, LGBTQ+ rights, …
These are very important themes. All of them are worth a fight to me, and they have their
roots from real-life events that aren’t all from the non-Western world. My
reaction wasn’t to the themes; it was to the approach. Just like every previous
interaction I had with EU(+Switzerland) trying to evaluate me (or my country), the
approach felt top-down.
First, I did a
couple of those questions wrong across the practice tests just because the
question had a Danish word that I didn’t know. You are allowed to make only one
mistake on that part of the exam, so this creates an extra stressful situation.
I get that part of the exam is evaluating one’s Danish language skills as well,
but if one gets a question wrong due to not knowing a word or phrase, does that
mean that they have unacceptable values?
Then, in one of
the practice tests, there was a question asking the age of sexual consent in
Denmark. The options were 12, 15, and 18. The correct answer is 15. I didn’t really know Danish law on this point, and the study material doesn’t
have it. Not sure if that makes me a terrible person. In Turkey, the answer is
18. I picked 15, though, while doing the practice test, just because I
remembered the news from some years ago about a Danish politician, Jeppe Kofod,
having at some point a relationship with a 15-year-old while he was 34, which was not illegal but a point of discussion
due to the age and power difference. But what if a person answers “18” to this?
Does that make them someone with unacceptable values? Again, you are allowed to
make only one mistake here.
Finally, there
are also the questions of the sort “What is the ranking of Denmark when it
comes to press freedom / democracy / LGBTQ+ rights / …?” or “What percentage of
Danish population is against someone beating their wives?” You of course pick
the highest rankings and percentages, respectively, for these, since “Denmark
is a perfect land!”
Thankfully, in the test I took on Wednesday, there were no violence-related questions under “values” section. The two questions I want to note are:
(1) There was the question of whether a parent has the legal right to ask for meat that is slaughtered based on religious practices for their child in kindergarten. While
the answer is “no” to this, based on friends and colleagues with children in Denmark,
I know that some schools try to be accommodating for the different dietary
preferences and restrictions these days, which I think is nice.
(2) There was the
question of whether one can have another spouse while already married. Of
course, the answer is “no” to this but considering that I am hearing more and
more open relationships and less pair-wise arrangements around me, maybe people will change their minds about this in the future. =P
To end on a
positive note, it was a nice experience to read the study material and watch
more documentaries about Denmark during May. I am a nerd when it comes to
history, culture, and politics. Time spent on these topics is enjoyable for me
even if it is for a test. Observing how a country chooses to present itself through
such study material is also interesting.
The exam itself was
pleasant as well. This was my third exam in Denmark for permanent residency and
citizenship applications. In all cases, the exam organizers were quite
friendly and helpful.
I checked my
answers against the released ones the day after the exam, and assuming what I
remember from the exam is correct, I have only one mistake in the part about
contemporary Danish news. My mistake was due to the failure of my Danish rather
than my knowledge. Not sure if it makes it better or worse. In any case, this
means another big milestone is done (almost – need to get the official
result to confirm for sure). But I still have the end-of-game-monster to face, which is the application
process and the wait, which in my case can take 2-3 years.
This is me
ending on a positive note.
