European Central: Denmark Targets Non-Westerners With New Legislation
The Nordic Countries are known to be some of the happiest countries in a chaotic world. This is why new legislation from Denmark may be surprising to those not familiar with Danish politics. Demark has proposed to limit the number of ‘non-western’ residents in public housing to 30 percent within ten years. The main purpose is to combat ghettos from continuing to form in Denmark. Only now, the new legislation will relabel ghettos as ‘parallel societies’. The term ghetto has been criticized as it is not only based on economic hardships but the ethnic composition of a neighborhood. Critics of the criteria for a neighborhood to be labeled as a ghetto have criticized why poor neighborhoods inhabited primarily by ‘westerners’ are not labeled in the same manner. To fit the criteria, neighborhoods had to have a thousand residents and half or more had to be non-Western, along with meeting two out of four criteria. The criteria are as follows: an unemployment rate of 40 percent; a crime rate three times higher than the national average; less than 40 percent of those aged 39-50 years old have an upper secondary education; and the gross income is 55 percent less than the regional average. In neighborhoods that have been labeled ghettos, daycare is mandatory and misdemeanors have twice the legal consequences they would if committed in other neighborhoods. There is concern that migrants are not integrating in Denmark. This is an issue raised not only in Denmark but other European nations as well.
To understand who this legislation would affect, the Ministry of Interior and Housing clarified that western countries includes all European Union member states regardless of their location in Europe, Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, San Marino, Switzerland, the Vatican State, Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Any resident from a country not in the previous list is classified as non-western. The Ministry also pointed out this classification is used by the nation’s authority for statistics, Statistics Denmark. The ministry stated that this way of classifying is not based on economics, religion, political systems, or culture. This however is doubtful. If the classification is not based on any of those factors, then what is the integration Denmark is trying to achieve based on?
Broad Support For The Legislation
Anti-immigrant rhetoric has often been associated with the far-right in Europe, but previous legislation that limited migration has enjoyed support across the political spectrum in Denmark. This current legislation is proposed by the Social Democrats, a center-left party. During the four years that the Social Democrats were the opposition in the parliament, they always voted with measures to restrict migration. One of these measures was the controversial jewelry law. This law permitted the seizure of jewelry from asylum seekers in order to help pay for their stay in Denmark whilst they await a decision. The law allows asylum seekers to keep cash and valuables worth 10,000 kroner but anything over that amount can be confiscated.
The reasoning for broad support behind limitations on migration was that Denmark wanted to maintain its social welfare state. Europe saw over a million refugee and economic migrants move to primarily wealthy Northern European welfare states in 2015 alone. Danish politicians saw only two options, allow a large number of refugees and economic migrants to enter the country, or protect the welfare state. In the end, protecting the welfare state was chosen and it has become increasingly difficult for foreigners to move and live in Denmark.
The Difficult Quest To Danish Citizenship
One example of how it has become difficult for foreigners is the harder citizenship exam Denmark released in 2016. Only 31.2 percent of test-takers of those who took it in June of 2016 passed the exam. The exam received backlash over some of the questions, one which asked the test taker to identify the Danish restaurant which received its third Michelin star in February 2016. The exam was also criticized because Danes had difficulty answering the questions themselves. Inger Stojberg, the Integration minister defended the difficulty of the exam by stating that test-takers could study a free textbook before taking the exam. Stojberg also stated that applicants need to earn Danish citizenship. Besides the questions being considered more difficult than the ones on the previous version of the exam, test takers must now get 80 percent of questions right instead of 73 percent. It is worth noting that the textbook is only available in Danish and contains 140 pages of content.
Besides the citizenship exam, those hoping to acquire Danish citizenship must also pass language exams. The oral exam can be difficult due to the vowels in Danish which can be difficult for foreigners to distinguish. Those hoping to become Danes must also prove that they supported themselves financially for the past two years, and not have received financial support from the government for more than four months in the past five years. Applicants also must have lived for 9 consecutive years in Denmark. There are exceptions to some of these requirements but they are only published in Danish. On the bright side, Denmark has allowed permanent residents to apply for dual citizenship since 2015. Permanent residents would only have to forfeit their citizenship from another nation if it does not permit their citizens to have dual citizenship, or specifically citizenship from Denmark.
In order to qualify for Danish citizenship, you have to have a spotless criminal record. Some may agree with preventing offenders who committed serious crimes such as murder from gaining citizenship, but in Denmark, a traffic violation can delay the citizenship process. If someone in Denmark receives a speeding ticket of 3,000 or more kroner, they are ineligible to apply for citizenship for another 4.5 years. Rilwan Hassan understands this all too well. Hassan has lived in Denmark for over ten years while playing for various Danish soccer teams. His journey to becoming a Danish citizen was delayed after he received a speeding ticket. He has the opportunity to try to search for a higher-paying contract in other countries but instead chooses to remain in Denmark so he can hopefully one day become a Dane.
