Required for a Danish citizenship: a handshake.

Starting next month, new Danish citizens must shake hands at their naturalization ceremony, under a new law aimed at Muslim immigrants.

Some religious Muslims refuse to touch members of the opposite sex outside their immediate families. Critics have derided the law as awkward, “purely symbolic” and irrelevant to an applicant’s qualifications.

But some politicians defended the new rule, saying it indicates a foreigner’s willingness to assimilate. “If one can’t do something that simple and straightforward, there’s no reason to become a Danish citizen,” said one lawmaker.

Why it matters: This is the latest in a series of anti-immigrant measures in Denmark. The government recently announced plans to isolate certain migrants it wants to deport on a small, out-of-the-way island, and this summer, the Parliament prohibited the wearing of face veils in public.