Denmark: Immigrants moving to Sweden to marry

Denmark: Immigrants moving to Sweden to marry

The study can downloaded from the SFI site.

By now, I'm thoroughly confused about the consequences of this law. Depending on the study:
* immigrants are marrying later
* immigrants are bypassing the law by wedding unofficially and/or coming in via other types of visas
* immigrants are marrying more other 2nd generation immigrants.

This current study adds two more options:
* immigrants are emigrating in order to marry
* immigrants are entering so-called 'commuter marriages'.

Maybe all of the above is happening.

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A new study by SFI shows that the 24 year old law got youth to get married later. But at the same time, the law increased emigration to Sweden and created a new type of marriage.

The controversial 24-year-old law means that youth of a non-Danish background marry later then they did before, according to a study which the SFI (Danish National Centre for Social Research) prepared for the Integration Ministry and which was published today. It focused on youth ages 15-30 from ten chosen countries of origin including Turkey, Pakistan and Somalia.

Before the law changes in 2002, 30% of the 21 year old women of non-Western background got married, while the number fell to 10% after 2002, says the SFI.

And as the marriages are done later, the number of family reunifications with spouses from the countries of origin fell, according to the study. The drop occurred mainly among 20-23 year olds.

The 24 year old law did not cause more youth of immigrant background to marry people who live in Denmark - neither other immigrants not ethnic Danes. Only among the group of youth of Turkish background could the SFI document an increase in marriages with resident - other youth of Turkish background.

And that means, that the wake of the 24 year old law recorded both an increased emigration to Sweden and a new form of marriage - 'commuter marriages'

According to the study, since 2002 there's been a tenfold increase in the number of youth of minority background who moved to Sweden. In particular, youth of Pakistani background are strongly represented in this group.

According to the study summary, the youth who move to Sweden often live together with a person who's done family reunification from the country of origin,which indicates that the youth move to Sweden in order to avoid Danish family reunification laws.

Other couples, who are challenged by the family reunification laws, choose to establish a new form of commuter-marriage, according to the study's conclusions:

"In these marriages the couple lives apart for shorter or longer period and is typically only together for the time allowed by a tourist visa. Commuter marriages are often turbulent, not least for the children who live in them," according to the study.

SFI can't say precisely how many people are living in such commuter-marriages.

Source: Berlingske Tidende (Danish)


See also:
* Denmark: Marriage immigration drops
* Denmark: Evading the 24 year law
* Denmark: More marriages with residents
* Denmark: Less immigrants dropouts
* Denmark: Increase in 2nd generation immigrants marrying each other
* Denmark: Immigrant marriage-age increases
* Denmark: Marriages continue despite 24 year rule