Refugees are welcome in Denmark after all

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Refugees are welcome in Denmark after all

Refugees welcome here! Denmark has announced that it expects an influx of up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. That’s an enormous increase for a country whose immigration minister said in January that he was pleased there were only 2,095 applications for asylum in 2021.

Ukrainians in Poland boarding a bus to Denmark. Photo: Paw Lindegaard Nielsen © DR.

Denmark has not taken in more than 4,000 refugees in any year since the migration wave from the war in Syria in 2015, when the country received 21,000 asylum applications. Estimates of the number of arrivals range from 20,000 to 30,000. Minister of the Interior Kaare Dybvad Bek expects that it could exceed 40,000 after Easter vacation.

Emergency residency law

Last month Parliament passed a special law to enable Ukrainians to get residency and work permits quickly. It waives the normal limit on residency of 90 days without a visa or an asylum claim, and the Ukrainians thus need not be part of the asylum system. They will also be exempt from the country’s infamous “jewelry law” from 2016, which allowed authorities to confiscate valuables from refugees but perhaps has never been enforced.

The effort will be expensive. It has cost DKK 2 billion so far. Most of these funds have been taken from the government’s foreign aid budget, a tactic that not all parties are happy with. If up to 100,000 refugees come to Denmark, it will cost DKK 8-10 billion per year (DK). Like the rest of the world’s nations, Denmark has already seen its public budget balloon during the pandemic of the past two years. The logistics of the accommodations will also be difficult; there aren’t enough facilities to house a fraction of the number expected. There are also questions about equal treatment and priorities.

Ethnic favoritism?

One might well wonder why the country is so eager to take in Ukrainians when it has been tightening its asylum and immigration regulations for several years. “A series of clever decisions have been made which have continually ensured better control of immigration,” said Immigration Minister Mattias Tesfaye about the decline in asylum applications.

The Social Democratic administration has been criticized by its European counterparts as well as Danish immigration activists for revoking asylum status for Syrian refugees while the situation in Syria remained unstable. Some critics call the difference in policy racist. Is it owing to the fact that Ukrainians are white and Christian, unlike many refugees and migrants from the Middle East, North Africa, and Afghanistan? At a protest demonstration (DK) held on 2 April before the Ministry of Immigration and Integration, a spokesman for the Syrian Refugees in Denmark demanded that all refugees be treated according to the new residency law for Ukrainians.

European solidarity

Testfaye stated that Denmark’s response is appropriate when “a European country is attacked, a country close to us.” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen also argued that the situation is different “because Ukraine is our region.… It’s our back yard, if you like.” Pia Olsen Dyhr, the chair of the left-leaning Socialist People’s Party, concurred, asserting mistakenly that “there’s only one country between us and Ukraine, and that’s Poland.” Even the parties that have been most opposed to immigration are ready to welcome Ukrainians, like the others justifying the decision by the concept of nærområde (“nearby area”) and denying that religion plays any role.

The Danish public seems to agree with the view that Ukrainians share European cultural values as exemplified by their interest in joining the EU and NATO and will therefore be easier to integrate. It doesn’t hurt either that they are used to working and that Denmark is experiencing a labor shortage. There have been some difficulties getting refugees from non-Western countries into the labor force.

Inger Støjberg, the former immigration minister who was impeached for abusing her office, disavows the prevailing rationale: “No one dares to say it like it is: It's because the Ukrainians are more like us and because they are primarily Christians."

Now where to put them?

Housing the refugees will be the responsibility of the municipalities. The distribution of refugees (DK) among them depends on how many immigrants from non-Western countries the municipalities already have. Those with many such immigrants will get no Ukrainians. The municipalities where refugees have arrived are scrambling to find accommodations. They use public housing, dormitories, facilities that were set up for Covid-19 isolation, and sports complexes.

Copenhagen Municipality, which has by far the largest number of refugees and has a perennial shortage of low-income housing, is considering building a “pavilion-city” that would house 330 refugees (DK) for three years and include a day-care center. Critics warn against isolating the Ukrainians in another “parallel society.”

Private citizens are also encouraged to take refugees into their homes. They are eligible for compensation of up to DKK 500 ($75) per day, but they receive much less than that. Although the funding comes from the state, it must be administered by the individual municipalities, which set the rates and rules. Some of them hesitate to use the funds at all because the program is difficult to manage and control. Some private citizens who share their homes (DK) with refugees are already becoming impatient with the strain and are asking the municipalities for more help.

Children and accidental guest workers

Housing isn’t the only logistical issue. After the first wave, the residence permit application system became overloaded. People could not get appointments at three of the four regional Citizens’ Services offices, and new offices needed to be set up.

There will be great pressure on schools and day-care institutions. Education Minister Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil is calling for retired teachers and day-care staff (DK) as well as students in relevant programs to assist with the influx. Student associations from the country’s seminaries have expressed a willingness to help. The schools will need to set up special tracks with native-language instruction and recruit Ukrainian teachers and others to staff them.

Filling job vacancies with Ukrainian refugees won’t be a simple matter either. Because of Ukraine’s conscription policy, most of the refugees are women and children. Ukrainian women have been part of the labor force, but it can take time to place them in suitable positions, warns Mads Lundby Hansen from the CEPOS think tank. The benefits for the Danish economy would come over the longer term, he adds, and the Ukrainian ambassador says that Denmark shouldn’t create conditions for Ukrainians to stay here for the rest of their lives. Even if they don’t, perhaps the country should remain prepared for additional surges of refugees in the new global disorder. 

The agonies of European multiculturalism

Douglas Murray is a British journalist and associate editor at the Spectator. His latest book, The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity and Islam, which came out earlier this year, is of great importance for understanding developments in the past 50 years in Europe. It concerns the growing Muslim population in the region that poses an intractable social problem because it is not being integrated in European culture. A combination of mass migration, a falling birth rate among Europeans, and the acquiescence of Western European politicians has led to a situation in which traditional liberal Western values are being undermined.

The acts of jihadist terrorism that the book recounts are well known. The less sensational but disturbingly frequent incidences of rape and anti-Semitic attacks are also becoming familiar. The most shocking revelations of the book, however, concern the denial and guilt displayed by Western European politicians and the mainstream media, partly because they run counter to the skepticism about immigration that Western European populations have shown since the 1960s.

From guest workers to sharia law

At that time, when there was a labor shortage, Western European countries invited “guest workers” from Turkey and elsewhere to fill the shortfall. They were expected to return home when they were no longer needed, but they stayed. They were expected to become integrated, and when they did not, politicians denied that there was a problem because they were afraid of being called racist and would not admit that their policies had been mistaken. The police and the media supported this position by suppressing news of gang rapes and white slavery, for example.

Even though the large majority of the Muslim population does not commit acts of terrorism and violence, there is surprisingly widespread support among it for sharia law, the Islamic State, honor killings, female genital mutilation, and so on. The earlier predictions of problems that were treated as alarmist proved to be underestimated.

A religion of peace

And when news of atrocities did get out, politicians insisted that the acts had nothing to do with Islam, a religion of peace. They blamed their own culture for its colonial history and maintained that Europe had a unique responsibility to shelter even those opposed to its basic values. This is political correctness taken to masochistic lengths. At various times, for example, Swedish cabinet members and prominent figures have said that everyone is a migrant, that Swedes were jealous of the authenticity of Middle Eastern culture, and that a failure to accept migrants was equivalent to the Holocaust.

The book describes this syndrome in the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, and it also describes a resistance to it in eastern Europe, notably Hungary. It makes little reference to Denmark besides the Mohammed cartoon crisis, but the implication of its message for Denmark is striking: with its infamous 50+ measures to restrict immigration, the current Danish government is actually taking the course that Murray recommends to mitigate the worst integration problems afflicting its neighboring countries.

Fake Syrians and children

Consider the issue of repatriating people whose applications for asylum have been rejected. In Germany, Sweden and elsewhere, there have been thousands of cases of people whose applications have been rejected for making false claims of being Syrians, of being minors or of being persecuted on political grounds. In very few cases, are they returned to their homeland or to the country where they should have sought asylum according to the Dublin III accord. The authorities lose track of them. Perhaps they survive economically on the black market or join criminal gangs. In any case, the official policies are considered impossible to enforce.

In Denmark, the number of such cases is relatively small, but they have been identified: In the first half of 2017, some 1,835 rejected applicants were repatriated. As of August 3, there were 941 waiting to be repatriated (DK), including 434 who could not be repatriated because of difficulties reaching agreements with their home countries. There is a debate between humanitarian organizations, which argue that those who cannot be sent home be given residence or work permits, and the administration, which argues that such measures would encourage others to enter the country on false pretenses.

Racist or realist?

Rejected asylum applicants have also escaped from Danish refugee centers and disappeared from view, but the concrete figures on the issue, the open debate on the policy and the negotiations conducted with the applicants’ home countries set Denmark apart from the usual practices and attitudes that Murray describes. The center-left Social Liberal party now also favors (DK) a reduction in the number of refugees, and the Social Democrats now propose (DK) following the Australian model in which applicants are processed outside the country. Because of a reduction in the number of applicants, Denmark using the allocated funding to support refugee camps (DK) in North Africa, as Murray and others recommend.

Denmark has been vilified for exemplifying xenophobic tendencies that have appeared in France, Germany and elsewhere, but if Murray’s portrayal is credible, its recent policies exemplify rather a more candid and realistic attitude toward the European cultural crisis than is found in most of the continent.

Immigration in Denmark 2017

In the preceding post I sketched the process of acquiring citizenship in Denmark, alluding to the controversy about recent restrictions on immigration. This time I want to make a broader survey of the issue of immigration itself, even though it is likely to seem grossly inaccurate, inadequate and biased to all sides. Cynics might accuse me of sending up a trial balloon for target practice just to see whether anyone is even reading this blog.

Integration Minister Inger Støjberg’s cake scandal was not her most recent or serious one. She has been charged with violating the procedure for the treatment of child brides –refugee couples that include an underage partner – and lying about it. The sequence of events still seems confusing. Støjberg apparently decided, despite warnings from Integration Ministry officials, that these couples should be placed in separate living quarters without the prior hearing they had a right to. Afterward she gave suspect and shifting explanations to a Parliament committee. The parliamentary opposition, which sees this as an arrogant disregard of human rights and part of a recurring pattern of discrimination, doesn’t want to let it go with a slap on the wrist this time.

No room at the inn

Støjberg had been unrolling the 50 restrictions since the June 2015 election brought the right wing back to power on a rise of anti-immigrant and anti-refugee sentiment after the Valentine’s Day terrorist attack. The xenophobic Danish People’s Party became the second-largest in Parliament, and Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen made reducing the number of refugees that Denmark accepts a key objective. The first measures included reducing the amount of assistance refugees receive by around half and publishing an announcement in Middle Eastern newspapers informing prospective refugees and their smugglers of the reduction.

State of emergency

Then came the huge stream of refugees and migrants in Europe. As they reached Denmark and many kept walking toward Sweden, the mood shifted and became more conflicted. Some Danes, embarrassed that the country was being compared to Hungary for its lack of hospitality, drove refugees to Sweden or to a rail station, technically becoming human smugglers themselves and risking criminal charges.

With the shocking sight of the drowned Alan Kurdi in a red t-shirt on the Turkish shore, the prime minister relented by agreeing to take about 2,000 additional refugees, an insignificant fraction but enough to draw criticism from his supporters. The refugees were distributed throughout the country to share the expenses and to promote integration, but the counties couldn’t find housing for all of them and had to use idle kindergartens and rent bedrooms in private homes.

 

With the reports of sexual assaults in Cologne on New Year's Eve 2015/16 and fake Syrian passports, the mood swung back toward caution. In early 2016, Denmark's infamous “jewelry law,” which empowered the police to confiscate refugees’ cash and valuables above a certain amount, tarnished the country's reputation further, although it was hardly ever implemented. Pegida, the anti-Islamist group that originated in Germany, held marches regularly to protest immigration, and the radical-left Autonomous Movement held larger, more aggressive counter-demonstrations, occasionally rioting and damaging property, usually in poorer districts of Copenhagen.

The new normal

After the crisis subsided, the influx turned out to be smaller than had been feared, and in the past year, the campaign has been achieving its objectives. The number of people applying for asylum in Denmark has declined sharply, and the number of applicants who leave voluntarily has increased, as has the number who are denied asylum and go underground. A report from the Council of Europe criticized Denmark for erecting barriers to family reunification such as requiring fees and longer processing time. The number of people living in poverty has risen sharply, to some degree because of lower social benefits for unemployed foreigners.

The public has become polarized. There is a widespread perception of a rise in racism and intolerance. After a report showing that “ethnic Danes” were in a minority in a few municipalities, an extremist political party began handing out fake tickets home to immigrants. A recent survey of Danish Muslims showed that a third felt they were looked down upon, a third thought their background made it difficult to find work, and 80 percent believed that the views on Islam and Muslims had worsened in recent years.

Greenland’s inordinate thirst

The left-wing opposition has become increasingly vocal in accusing the administration of fostering an atmosphere of intolerance. In a recent column entitled “Give Me Back the Denmark That Had a Heart,” David Trads, a prominent political commentator, highlights as symptomatic the remark of a soccer coach whose team had just clinched a position in the top division: “My players will surely be as drunk as Greenlanders tonight” (which says as much about the country’s attitude toward alcohol as its views of Greenlanders).

The coach was reported to the police for racism, he apologized immediately, and his apologists came forward complaining of political correctness and Denmark’s runaway “victim culture.” Noting that the main targets of discrimination in Denmark are the abstemious Muslims, Trads asked a founder of Black Lives Matter what Europe should do to prevent racism in Europe from becoming as “violent” as in America. Fight for humanism, diversity and peace, she said.

On the other side, critics of immigration point out that the number of immigrants and their descendants in Denmark is still rising, particularly in Copenhagen, where they represent 24 percent of the population and present difficulties for the schools. Controversies have arisen about pork in lunch programs and segregated swimming instruction. They note that a relatively large number of radicalized Islamic State volunteers has come from Denmark and that certain imams are still promoting “hate,” while Denmark is and must remain a Christian nation. They also point to a huge increase in the past year in the number of refugees who are ready to work – from 3 percent to 51 percent – and advocate using the savings from the decline in refugees on development programs close to conflict zones.

Can’t get there from here

There is of course seldom agreement on this issue. Policies swing back and forth like a pendulum depending on the parties in power. Sweden was far too idealistic in welcoming migrants and refugees, they could not be processed or integrated in an orderly manner, crime has risen sharply, and the reaction has set in. Denmark’s integration problems are not as bad as those in Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands or France, probably because there has been a slight right-wing majority in Parliament for most of this century. Defenders of the restrictions maintain that the conditions of refugees and immigrants in Denmark are still generally better than elsewhere, while others are dismayed by the rise of xenophobic populism in the West generally and want to resuscitate Denmark’s humanitarian tradition.

In envisioning genuine integration, it is hard to get past the problems inherent in a fundamentalist adherence to Islam, which as in the US the politically correct are loath to question. As long as a significant segment of the Muslim population assents even tacitly to sharia law and practices such as forced marriages, honor killings and female genital mutilation, there will be insuperable barriers to understanding and cooperation. One of the more favorable developments in Denmark was the creation last year of a Facebook page for ex-Muslims. The founders and proponents, who put themselves at considerable risk of reprisals for their apostasy, have opened a small but important channel for moderate Muslims to establish a presence and promote values that could enable real integration.

Welfare for whom?

It might seem strange to start a blog about a putative model country soon after the place has been vilified in the international media for its supposedly brutal treatment of desperate refugees. At a time when its policies are associated not only with Bernie Sanders but also with Donald Trump. So, some background information – certain to prompt objections.

The Danish center-right government came to power last year on a platform of enacting stricter laws and rules for refugees and immigrants. It has tried to limit the number of refugees the country accepts. It reduced the monetary support that refugees receive and increased the time they must wait before they can bring family members to the country. It lengthened the period before they can apply for citizenship and made citizenship requirements more stringent.

Visitors not welcome
More controversially, it put announcements in Lebanese and Jordanian newspapers explaining the measures in order to discourage refugees from coming. This was in September, during the surge of migration and the death of three-year-old Alan Kurdi, when Sweden and Angela Merkel were welcoming all comers. That made Denmark seem harsh in contrast and put it in the camp with Hungary, which refused to comply with EU agreements and built a fence, and Marine Le Pen.

The last straw for public opinion was a measure authorizing the police to confiscate refugees’ cash and valuables above 10,000 Danish kroner, or about $1,500 (originally 3,000 kroner), to pay for their upkeep. Although the plan excluded items with sentimental value, this was the image conjured up in the media – Nazis ripping wedding rings off fingers and extracting gold teeth. The prime minister was compared to Hitler in a British newspaper. 

Unworkable anyway 
The rationale for the measure was that instances of somewhat affluent refugees applying for aid had been reported in other countries (aside from the large number traveling on fake Syrian passports and rumors of Islamic State fighters in their midst). Also, Danish welfare recipients are subject to a similar limit (although no one could recall Danes’ homes being ransacked for hidden stashes of jewelry).

But the reality on the ground – that is, at the border – was that the police didn’t feel qualified to judge on the spot whether refugees had too much money and didn’t want the task either. So few assets ended up being confiscated. It might seem that Denmark got itself a nasty reputation unnecessarily, but like the newspaper announcements, the initiative served the purpose of discouraging people from coming.

Penalized for prescience
Since then, Sweden, Germany and the EU altogether have changed their tune and adopted a position closer to Denmark’s. Not only are they returning refugees; Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands also seized refugees’ personal property. In that respect, Denmark paid a price for being ahead of the game. It tried to remind the world that it still accepts an above-average number of refugees per capita, that its refugee benefits are much better than average, that its foreign aid as a percentage of GDP is among the highest in the world, and so on.

But if the general impression of intolerance from the “jewelry law” and the rest are difficult to shake, observers should note that many Danes opposed these measures – perhaps half at the peak of the crisis. They held demonstrations, transported refugees to Sweden personally and sometimes invited them into their homes, ranted on social media, wrote a series of op-eds expressing shame for a racist and xenophobic nation, and portrayed the Integration Minister Inger Støjberg trimming a Christmas tree decorated with a dead body. The government sank in opinion polls, and at times there was some doubt it would survive.

Fifth column on the dole
But to return to the original question: None of this invalidates the value of Denmark as an example of a successful social democracy for Bernie Sanders’s campaign or for America generally. It rather sets the issues in sharper relief. On the one hand, it might suggest that Denmark wants to reserve its welfare benefits for native Danes and that its prosperity or happiness owes something to its relative ethnic homogeneity. On the other, the consensus in Denmark now is that the integration of the existing minority population has failed and an increase in Muslim immigrants will exacerbate the problem of a “parallel society” outside the labor market.

After the terrorist attack last year and incendiary exhortations by certain imams, with a large majority of Danish Muslims favoring sharia law and Denmark sending the second-largest number of jihadists to Syria per capita, the dangers of Islamist radicalization have become more palpable.  Some see public support for forces that ostensibly want to undermine traditional Danish society as the strongest evidence that the welfare state has grown out of control.