Denmark’s “Ghetto Law” faces EU ban

And other approaches to the never-ending integration puzzle

Last week I wrote about the process of settling in Denmark for disaffected Americans. The expat situation, however, is a special subset of the bigger immigration picture. Expats tend to be “Western” professionals who share basic cultural values, mobility, and other privileges with “ethnic Danes.” Integration poses even greater challenges for immigrants from the Middle East and Africa and their descendants. They are part of the larger immigration debate across Europe and the subject of various controversial measures by the Danish government.

Denmark’s largest Shia mosque, Imam Ali (as) Mosque in Copenhagen. Photo: World Federation of Khoja Shia Ithna-Asheri Muslim Communities

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen caused a stir earlier this year in an interview with Politico by agreeing with US Vice President JD Vance’s attack on loose immigration policies at the Munich Security Conference: “I consider this mass migration into Europe as a threat to the daily life in Europe.” She argued that a tight immigration policy is not incompatible with social democratic principles but is rather the “second pillar” of a stable polity after social welfare provisions and is necessary to ensure integration and social cohesion.

In February, the New York Times ran a long feature article on the Danish anomaly: a left-of-center (and now centrist) government pursuing an approach associated with the right-wing populist movement that is sweeping across Europe. One reason for the Social Democrats’ success in the 2019 election was that they accepted the strict immigration policy of the preceding center-right administration. By co-opting the issue, the party held off the ascent of xenophobic right-wing forces. As Frederiksen explains,

There is a price to pay when too many people enter your society…. Those who pay the highest price, it’s the working class or lower class in society.

That view was echoed by the current Education Minister Mattias Tesfaye, also quoted in the piece. Tesfaye—whose parents are an Ethiopian immigrant and a Danish mother—and himself a former left-winger, wrote a book arguing that, by favoring loose immigration, the left has betrayed its traditional working-class constituency:

[T]he fear of being accused of racism has often prevented the party from taking an objective stance on immigration policy.

Social engineering by semantic loophole

The centerpiece of the government’s integration efforts is the 2018 “Ghetto Law,” which seeks to eliminate pockets of “parallel society” around the country. While cleaning up the pejorative language to “vulnerable housing areas” and “redevelopment areas,” the measure continues to overhaul districts designated by an overrepresentation of non-Western residents, lower education and income, and high crime rates. It includes tougher sanctions for certain crimes, compulsory daycare, and forced relocation.

While the administration argues that it is offering people a better life, those affected accuse it of discrimination and racism. The policy has also been criticized by the Council of Europe’s Commission against Racism and Intolerance, and now the country is awaiting an imminent ruling by the European Court of Justice on whether it is discriminatory.

A preliminary proposal by the Court’s advocate general suggests that it will be overturned. The crux of the issue is whether its designation of persons of “non-Western background” constitutes discrimination based on “ethnic origin,” that is, whether it is a distinction without a difference.

The initiative seems to be working, at least according to its metrics. The number of neighborhoods identified for renewal has fallen, with improvements in employment, education, and crime statistics. While some mayors of the affected municipalities have complained about both stigmatization and the high cost of renovation, others have warned that the progress they have made would be jeopardized if the EU bans the program. The administration will consider alternative approaches if that happens.

Hammering the message home

Last year, Social Democratic MP Frederik Vad gave a controversial speech attacking integration problems that persist despite the reduction of official “ghettos”:

[W]ork, education, a house, participation in associations and a clean criminal record are not enough on their own if you are also using your position to undermine Danish society from within. . . . [P]eople who insist on bringing a culture of honour to work, or who don't think you need to subscribe to women's freedom and equality to be part of this society, should see nothing but a hammer falling.

“Culture of honour” clearly refers to Islamism and Sharia law. Vad’s indelicate rhetoric was criticized by several party colleagues for denigrating and hurting integration efforts, but it was endorsed by PM Frederiksen as an accurate reflection of current immigration policy.

One commentator with a “non-Western background,” Ali Aminali, fully endorses Vad’s charges and laments that, although politicians recognize the problem, they have done nothing concrete about it. He cites a new documentary by the National Center for Honor-Related Conflicts that presents 25 episodes in which civil servants took part in negative social control by supporting “honor” norms and dissuading women from going to crisis centers.

What the government is doing is crafting policy formulations that appear neutral and broadly applicable, taking care to avoid explicit references to specific religious groups or practices that could expose it to charges of discrimination.

Burqa-free classrooms

In January, the Commission on the Forgotten Women's Struggle published 13 recommendations addressing honor-related violence and negative social control in minority communities. Parliament is considering adopting one that would extend its 2018 ban on face coverings in public places to include educational institutions. While not specifically targeting religious dress, the ban effectively prohibits Islamic niqabs and burkas. Only around 0.2 percent of Muslim women in Denmark wear the niqab, so the number affected would be minimal.

Supporters argue that the ban promotes integration and protects women from coercion. Critics, including Human Rights Watch, say it marginalizes Muslim women and violates religious freedom. The government is also considering other proposals, such as banning first-cousin marriages.

Excessive religiosity and prejudicial antiracism

A recent TV2 documentary, entitled Ghetto, revealed how informal Islamic councils and so-called Sharia patrols operate outside the legal system to resolve local conflicts, enforce religious norms, and exert social control.

A broad political coalition has agreed to strengthen efforts against problematic religious activities and practices by revising the Religious Communities Act. One objective is to protect women's rights and freedom in religious communities by combating marriage and divorce customs that conflict with Danish values.

Another is to strengthen measures against hate preachers, partly by increasing transparency requirements for foreign financing of preachers. By introducing stricter obligations, it will allow the revocation of legal recognition if religious organizations facilitate sermons from designated hate preachers.

The government also has a new antiracism initiative, which I mentioned as one of its efforts to improve relations with Greenlanders. Muslim critics of the plan, however, note that while it addresses antisemitism and discrimination against Greenlanders in Denmark, it neglects islamophobia, which they argue is the most widespread form of intolerance in Danish society. They cite a study from Trygfonden showing that 84 percent of online hate speech directed at ethnic groups targets people from the Middle East and 92 percent directed at religion targets Muslims.

The dependable law-and-order card

Another factor motivating Danish politicians to take strong measures against clusters of ethnic subcultures is the forbidding example of neighboring Sweden. Crime in Denmark is higher among minority populations than among ethnic Danes, but it is nothing like the crisis of violence by immigrant drug gangs that plagues Sweden in the aftermath of its open-door policy during the 2015 migration surge.

In the past couple of years, the turf wars have spilled over the Øresund Bridge from Malmö to Denmark. Swedish gangs send their underage apprentices to perpetrate hits on the streets of Copenhagen because they’re exempt from adult criminal sentencing. Although the incidents have been sporadic, they serve as a warning against Sweden’s misbegotten idealism. The former neo-Nazi Sweden Democrats have grown into the country’s second-largest party, and Swedish law enforcement officials are now trying to learn from Danish practices.

Partly because of its small population and its historical ethnic homogeneity, Denmark has developed a consensus on social norms and has a low tolerance for civic disorder. In working to integrate minority groups, sometimes against their will, it’s striking a tenuous balance between ethnic friction and xenophobic backlash. It’s an ongoing project, because the Danish labor market will need immigrants to compensate for the fertility deficit found throughout Europe and Danes will need to learn to live with the inevitable rise in ethnic diversity.