Immigration is always on the agenda

In Denmark, it’s called “cucumber time,” the silly season for trivial news in the summer when nothing important is happening. In the past two weeks, however, the media have been dominated by the macabre story of a sunken submarine and missing Swedish journalist. But the Danish MPs have in fact been at work on proposals for measures affecting refugees, immigration and integration. Here is a summary.

As I mentioned last week, in response to an increase in shootings in Copenhagen, the minister of justice introduced a package intended to combat gang crime and violence. The week afterward, the Municipality of Copenhagen announced a set of initiatives intended to do the same. They concentrate on improving the coordinated efforts of social workers and the police, and they include visits to the homes of young men vulnerable to recruitment, a program to help gang members leave gangs safely, and assistance finding jobs for ghetto residents.

Liars and beggars

The government announced a proposal for a ban on permanent residence permission for refugees who are caught lying about their circumstances in applications for asylum. This concerns mainly young people who claim to be under 18 in order to obtain preferential treatment, and the Immigration and Integration Ministry reports that three-quarters of the applicants subjected to an age test were judged to be over 18. This would be measure No. 65 in the government’s campaign to restrict immigration. Critics argue that uncertainties and misunderstandings can easily arise in the hearings when interpreters are used. The proposal wouldn’t rescind applicants’ rights to temporary asylum under international conventions.

In June, Parliament passed a bill that made begging a crime punishable by two weeks in jail over the protests of organizations for the homeless. This came after an increase in foreign indigents camping out in city parks and other public places. More recently, the Danish People’s Party, the country’s most vehement anti-immigration party, proposed placing notices in Romanian newspapers warning about the policy in order to prevent people from coming. The measure is reminiscent of the ads placed in Lebanese newspapers to dissuade refugees from coming to the country.

Burkas and Muslim schools

Another measure that the Danish People’s Party has proposed several times is a ban on burkas or full facial covering. The Conservative Party has supported the ban, and now the Liberal Party expects it to be adopted soon. The European Court of Human Rights recently ruled that Belgium could implement such a prohibition, and the Norwegian government is also considering it. The small Liberal Alliance Party, which gives the right-wing coalition its very slim mandate, is against the ban, but the Social Democrats would consider a proposal.

In one of the proposals with the most wide-reaching implications, Mette Frederiksen, the leader of the Social Democrats, called for the closure of Muslim private schools in which the majority of pupils are non-Danish. This came after reporting by the BT daily on a headmaster who posted anti-Semitic images on social media. Noting that these schools may also promote values in conflict with the principles of democracy and sexual equality, Frederiksen questioned whether they are helping or hindering integration. The proposal itself may be in conflict with the European Human Rights Convention.

The latest announcements came from the administration: plans to contribute to a program to protect religious minorities abroad, particularly Christian minorities in the Middle East and North Africa, and the addition of two names to the blacklist of foreign “hate preachers.”

Xenophobia, intolerance?

So, significant things are happening behind the cucumber dressing. These measures of course reflect the tendency across Europe towards nationalism and isolationism. They may seem overly stringent, politically incorrect, even anti-humanitarian or racist, and they damage Denmark’s progressive reputation. They test the limits of certain provisions in human rights conventions, and some are contested and even invalidated. Then the legislators will try to find another way around the problem. That’s the democratic process.

And that’s a more important factor than one’s opinion on a given issue. There is a real debate here. The minority government must negotiate and compromise in order to muster a majority in Parliament. Cabinet members, other government officials, interest groups and affected citizens actually hold discussions in which they are not simply talking past each other while grandstanding for their own constituencies. When the center-left Social Democrats endorse selected measures as well as propose their own, they pass with a large majority.

Whose democracy is under siege?

Compare this with the situation in the United States, where there is growing polarization and now violent conflicts between nativists and proponents of identity politics as witnessed in the Charlottesville debacle. Congress can’t do anything about it, the executive branch exacerbates it, the two branches cannot collaborate, and executive orders are overturned by the courts.

Denmark is in the Islamic State’s sights. The recent events in Spain and Finland could have taken place here. The current wave of violence in Copenhagen and nearby Malmö, Sweden, involves gangs with predominately minority members who live in an alienated, “parallel society.” Certain controls and precautions are realistic and necessary. The Danish campaign on immigration and integration is not based on tricks, mystification and demagoguery. It consists of mainly incremental measures that often have international precedents. Most important, they are implemented by a functioning democracy. That’s what’s sorely lacking now in the US.