1. | www.observer.com.ge | 22 აგვისტო, 20165
High levels of trust, free health
care, free education and a social
welfare that creates a safety
net for everyone, a society that
even the former U.S. candidate
for presidency, Bernie Sanders,
admitted the United States can
learn from, Denmark is with-
out question a fairy tale with
its people ranking the happiest
in the world. What is the case,
however, for the non-Danes liv-
ing in the country?
Since the ethnic Yugoslav
wars in the Balkans in the 90s
and the EU enlargement in
2007, Denmark faces an im-
migration boom that baffles the
otherwise homogeneous soci-
ety. With 90% of the people be-
ing from Danish ancestry, it is
no wonder that the Danish pub-
lic and politicians are sceptical
of immigrants. “Danes haven’t
met immigrants. It is easier to be
scared of something you don’t
know”, shares Anne Hegelund,
parliament forerunner for the
red-green alliance Enhedslisten,
the Danish most left-wing party.
PiaKjærsgaard, a previous
leader of the right-wing Danske-
Folkeparti shares to the BBC,
“I don’t approve that we have
special needs in the Danish kin-
dergartens because of the Mus-
lim children. All this is wrong.
Many of them don’t have jobs
and just want the money from
our taxes, which is a big prob-
lem in Denmark”. This is the
discourse on immigration Danes
are usually exposed to and par-
ties like the Danske Folkeparti
are a major contributor to the
strict immigration laws in Den-
mark.
Nadia Mansour, a chief con-
sultant at the integration start-up
Culture Ways that aims at con-
tributing to equal educational
opportunities, shares one of the
reasons for Danish protection-
ism: Politicians are afraid that
“the Danishness will go away”.
She points out further that
“Denmark is the only country in
the world that calls itself mono-
cultural”.
The EU is already causing
tension among many politicians
and citizens with its requirement
for equal rights for EU citizens,
which means that if an EU citi-
zen studies or is unemployed in
Denmark, he/she should have
the right to the same benefits as
Danes do. This makes sense as it
also works reciprocally – Danes
get the same benefits if they are
students or unemployed in an-
other EU country. However, the
Danish welfare system is scarce-
ly found beyond the Scandina-
vian realm. According to Anne
Hegelund, if immigrants are un-
employed, it is not because they
want to live on social benefits.
“Sometimes, it is more difficult
to get a job or work training if
your name is Mohammed and
not Mads”, she explains. Nadia
Mansour believes that by mak-
ing stricter laws, integration is
going the wrong way.
Restrictions that hurt every-
one
The current strict immigra-
tion rules are here to protect the
Danes, to secure their working
places, and preserve the cur-
rent social system, but often
these rules turn exactly against
the ones they are meant to pro-
tect. Lena Rasmussen is one of
the many Danish citizens that
can’t reunite with their partners.
It has become more and more
complex for Danes that are mar-
ried to or in cohabitation with a
non-EU citizen to settle down in
Denmark due to visa complica-
tions and difficulties in obtain-
ing permanent residence permits
for their spouses. After filling
in a 60-page application form
and waiting a period of three
months, Lena and her Chilean
boyfriend received a refusal to
their application for a residence
permit on the grounds of family
reunification. Lena’s boyfriend
comes from a non-EU country
which complicates the applica-
tion process. An EU-citizen is
no more fortunate, however,
with a 39-page application and
the same tedious waiting period.
When asked what makes Den-
mark so severe on family reuni-
fication, Lena explains that the
current policy has nothing to do
with the refugee crises. “Actu-
ally the policy has been around
since 2002 and the main reason
for the government to imple-
ment it is to prevent arranged
marriages the increase in immi-
gration to Denmark. There is no
real evidence that arranged mar-
riages are a large issue in Den-
mark, so these reasons are no
longer legitimate, but it still af-
fects every international couple,
as well as Danes, not only im-
migrants.” For Nadia Mansour,
this law is a way of looking at
Denmark as a country that needs
protection from foreigners.
Immigrants not welcome?
According to both Anne He-
gelund and Nadia Mansour, the
Danes’ opinion on immigrants
is influenced by the way media
and politicians frame the issue.
“If all the problems in areas of
Denmark are blamed on im-
migration,, then there will be
a negative view on immigrants
in general”, shares Anne Hege-
lund. For Nadia Mansour, media
often presents immigrants and
being a Dane as something that
doesn’t go well together. “It is
a way of manipulating people,
especially when the public is
afraid to lose their values and are
not informed on the subject of
immigration”, she adds. “Danes
want to be friendly to others
and they are open to foreign-
ers, what many proved in 2015
by opposing the governmental
anti-refugee-policy at the time,”
explainsAnne Hegelund. On the
one hand, some Danes are fac-
ing charges and law suits due
to their effort to help refugees
reach Sweden and thus, over-
stepping governmental regula-
tions. On the other hand, one
can argue that they helped them
in order to assure their exit from
Denmark.
In the news, immigrants are
often referred to as cheap labour
and social benefiters who anger
tax-payers. What is omitted,
however, is the fact that immi-
grants pay the same taxes as the
Danes but have a more compli-
cated procedure in order to re-
ceive social help. Those who
are unable to speak the language
often fill in positions Danes are
generally not interested in such
as cleaning, construction work,
restaurant service or baby-sit-
ting. They are also more vulner-
able to become fraud victims
because of their lack of knowl-
edge of the Danish system. Sim-
ple things like finding a place to
stay, getting a CPR number, the
Danish personalised identifica-
tion number, are more difficult
for certain immigrants to gauge,
first of all, because informa-
tion is in Danish and secondly,
because Denmark functions ad-
ministratively in a very differ-
ent manner to other countries.
Nadia Mansour shares that “the
inequality that exists in society
is connected to people not be-
ing ‘Danish enough’.” Immi-
grants come to Denmark mainly
temped by the free and high
standard education and after
graduating they often stay and
try their luck in finding a job. If
Denmark is investing in educat-
ing foreigners, doesn’t it make
sense for the sake of its econo-
my and growth to keep young
talents in the country, talents
that after a few years will start
contributing to the Danish tax
fund? Politicians seem to for-
get that Denmark is one of the
countries with the oldest popu-
lation and lowest birth rate in
the European Union. If the ten-
dency continues, in ten, twenty,
thirty years from now, immi-
grants may be the main tax-pay-
ers in the country. If Danes are
paying with their taxes now for
foreigners’ education, health
care and so on, immigrants will
pay back when they become
employed. The trick is to make
foreigners stay. Of course, not
all immigrants are only univer-
sity students willing to integrate
as much as possible in the Dan-
ish society, but a big fraction is
and both media and politicians
tend to generalise or divide im-
migrants into Muslim - not suit-
able for the Danish society, and
non-Muslim - suitable for the
Danish society.
Integration: what does Den-
mark do wrong?
According to Anne Hegelund,
one of the steps towards better
integration is for the govern-
ment to find a way to encourage
Danish companies to hire more
and more immigrants. For those
who have children, it is “qual-
ity of education and life that can
improve integration”. For Nadia
Mansour, however, integration
is social rather than cultural or
religious. One thing is certain,
isolation is not a route to inte-
gration and more often it results
in misunderstanding, fear and
distrust – characteristics that do
not correspond to the trustwor-
thy and utopian Denmark that
many have grown to love.
DOES EUROPE NEED PROTECTION FROM
FOREIGNERS? THE CASE OF DENMARK
EKATERINA MANDOVA
EUROPE