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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17197/denmark-parallel-societies

The Danish government has announced a package of new proposals aimed
at fighting "religious and cultural parallel societies" in Denmark. A
cornerstone of the plan includes capping the percentage of
"non-Western" immigrants and their descendants dwelling in any given
residential neighborhood.

The aim is to preserve social cohesion in the country by encouraging
integration and discouraging ethnic and social self-segregation.

The announcement comes just days after Denmark approved a new law
banning the foreign funding of mosques in the country. The government
has also recently declared its intention significantly to limit the
number of people seeking asylum in Denmark.

Denmark, which already has some of the most restrictive immigration
policies in Europe, is now at the vanguard of European efforts to
preserve local traditions and values in the face of mass migration,
runaway multiculturalism and the encroachment of political Islam.

The new proposals, announced by Interior and Housing Minister Kaare
Dybvad Bek on March 17, are contained in a 15-page report, "Mixed
Residential Areas: The Next Step in the Fight Against Parallel
Societies."

A main element of the plan calls for relocating residents of
non-Western origin to ensure that, within the next ten years, they do
not comprise more than 30% of the total population of any neighborhood
or housing area in Denmark.

The plan also calls for phasing out the term "ghetto areas," which has
been criticized as being derogatory, and replacing it with the more
politically correct "prevention areas" (forebyggelsesområder) and
"transformation areas" (omdannelsesområder).

The term "ghetto," which refers to areas with high concentrations of
immigrants, unemployment and crime, first came into official use in
Denmark in 2010 with the release of a government report, "Reinserting
Ghettos into Society: A Showdown with Parallel Societies in Denmark."

A "ghetto area" currently refers to a residential area with at least
1,000 inhabitants, where the proportion of non-Western immigrants and
their descendants is higher than 50%, and where at least two of the
following four criteria are met:

    The proportion of residents aged 18-64 who are not in work or in
education exceeds 40%.

    The proportion of residents who have been convicted of violating
the Penal Code, the Firearms Act or the Narcotic Drugs Act is at least
three times the national average.

    The proportion of residents aged 30-59 who have only a primary
school education exceeds 60% of all residents in the same age group.

    The average gross income for taxpayers aged 15-64 in the area
(excluding education seekers) is less than 55% of the average gross
income for all residents in the area.

In 2018, the Danish Parliament, with support from all of the country's
main political parties, adopted the "parallel society package"
(Parallelsamfundspakken), also known as the "ghetto plan"
(Ghettoplan). The 22-point plan states that there will be no "ghetto
areas" in Denmark by 2030. Details are included in a government
report, "One Denmark Without Parallel Societies."

At the time, the government, explained the need for a comprehensive
strategy to combat parallel societies:

    "The government wants a cohesive Denmark. A Denmark that is based
on democratic values ​​such as freedom and the rule of law, equality
and freedom. Tolerance and equality. A Denmark where everyone
participates actively. Over the past 40 years, Denmark's ethnic
composition has changed markedly.

    "In 1980, we were 5.1 million people in Denmark. Today we are
close to 5.8 million. The growth of the population comes from outside.
Both immigrants and descendants of immigrants. The majority of the new
Danes have a non-Western background.

    "In 1980, there were about 50,000 people with non-Western
backgrounds in Denmark. Today there are almost half a million. This
corresponds to an increase from approximately one percent of the
population to approximately 8.5 percent....

    "What has gone wrong? At least three things.

    "First, the individual immigrant has the responsibility to learn
Danish, to get a job and become part of the local community and to be
integrated into his new homeland. Far too few have seized the
opportunities that Denmark offers, despite the fact that Denmark is a
society with security, freedom, free education and good job
opportunities.

    "Second, as a society, for too many years we have not made the
necessary demands of newcomers. We have had far too low expectations
for the refugees and immigrants who came to Denmark. We have not made
sufficiently tangible demands on jobs and self-sufficiency. Therefore,
too many immigrants have ended up in prolonged inactivity.

    "Third, for decades too many refugees and family-reunified people
have not been integrated into Danish society. They have been allowed
to clump together in ghetto areas without contact with the surrounding
community, even after many years in Denmark, because we have not made
clear demands on them to become part of the Danish community....

    "It's about to be the last call. In parts of Western Europe,
massive challenges have arisen with ghettos and very ingrained
parallel societies. Denmark is not there yet. And that is why we must
make a massive effort now, so that we can stop the development before
the problems become impossible to solve.

    "There is only one way. The ghettos must be completely eradicated.
Parallel societies must be broken down. And we must make sure that new
ones do not arise. Once and for all, the very big task of integration
must be tackled whenever immigrants and their descendants have not
embraced Danish values ​​and isolate themselves in parallel
societies."

The 2018 agreement stipulates that if a residential area ends up on
the so-called ghetto list, local councils must choose between four
measures: 1) demolish public housing; 2) build new housing for private
rental; 3) convert public housing to elderly or youth housing; or 4)
sell public housing to private buyers or investors for private rental.

The plan seeks to reduce the share of public housing to no more than
40% in the most vulnerable areas by 2030. The overall goal is to
transform the ghetto areas into normal residential areas.

Interior and Housing Minister Kaare Dybvad Bek says that the plan is
working. The number of residential areas on the government's most
recent "ghetto list," published in December 2020, has declined by half
in three years, from 29 in 2018 to 15 in 2020. The number of "hardened
ghettos," which refers to any area that has been included on the
ghetto list for four years in a row, has declined from 15 in 2018 to
13 in 2020.

Bek attributed the decline mainly to more people finding employment or
pursuing an education:

    "It is fantastically positive that it is progressing in so many
areas, and we are already seeing the effect of the parallel society
package. There is a historically large decrease in the number of
vulnerable areas on all lists, especially because far more residents
have come to find work or pursue education.

    "The large drop in the number of vulnerable areas is especially a
pat on the back to the housing organizations and municipalities that
in recent years have worked hard to ensure mixed housing areas, so
that all children have the same opportunities, no matter where they
grow up."

Bek's newly named "prevention areas" are to be designated on the basis
of the same criteria as the existing "ghetto areas," but with lower
limits. A "prevention area" refers to a residential area with at least
1,000 inhabitants, where the proportion of non-Western immigrants and
their descendants is higher than 30%, and where at least two of the
following four criteria are met:

    The proportion of residents aged 18-64 who are not in work or in
education exceeds 30%.

    The proportion of residents who have been convicted of violating
the Penal Code, the Firearms Act or the Narcotic Drugs Act is at least
two times the national average.

    The proportion of residents aged 30-59 who have only a primary
school education exceeds 60% of all residents in the same age group.

    The average gross income for taxpayers aged 15-64 in the area
(excluding education seekers) is less than 65% of the average gross
income for all residents in the area.

A total of 58 residential areas in Denmark will be categorized as
"prevention areas" in the government's new proposal, which will affect
approximately 100,000 people of non-Western origin. Bek explained:

    "For far too many years, we have closed our eyes to the
development that was underway, and only acted when the integration
problems became too great. Now we want to make sure that we do not
once again stick our heads in the sand while new parallel societies
emerge. We will do this by preventing more vulnerable housing areas
and by creating more mixed housing areas throughout Denmark.

    "Today, municipalities and housing organizations do not always
intervene in time if large public housing areas enter into a negative
spiral. Therefore, we will now provide access to most of the tools
that apply to vulnerable residential areas. For us, it is about
helping the residents and creating equal opportunities for all
children, regardless of where they grow up in Denmark.

    "The 'ghetto' term is misleading. I do not use it myself, and I
think it overshadows the important work that needs to be done in the
residential areas. This whole effort is about fighting parallel
societies and creating a positive development in the residential
areas, so that they are made attractive to a broad section of the
population."

Denmark's governing center-left Social Democratic Party has pursued
strong anti-immigration policies, partly in an effort to blunt the
appeal of populist parties on the right.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who has been in office since June
2019, recently announced that her government intends significantly to
limit the number of people seeking asylum in Denmark. The aim, she
said, is to preserve "social cohesion" in the country.

Denmark, which has a population of 5.8 million, received approximately
40,000 asylum applications during the past five years, according to
data compiled by Statista. Most of the applications received by
Denmark, a predominately Christian country, were from migrants from
Muslim countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

In recent years, Denmark has also permitted significant non-asylum
immigration, especially from non-Western countries. Denmark is now
home to sizeable immigrant communities from Syria (35,536); Turkey
(33,111); Iraq (21,840); Iran (17,195); Pakistan (14,471); Afghanistan
(13,864); Lebanon (12,990) and Somalia (11,282), according to
Statista.

Muslims currently comprise approximately 5.5% of the Danish
population, according to the Pew Research Center, which forecasts that
this figure will double or possibly triple by 2050, depending on the
migration scenario.

On January 22, during a parliamentary hearing on Danish immigration
policy, Frederiksen said that she was determined to reduce the number
of asylum approvals:

    "Our goal is zero asylum seekers. We cannot promise zero asylum
seekers, but we can establish the vision for a new asylum system, and
then do what we can to implement it. We must be careful that not too
many people come to our country, otherwise our social cohesion cannot
exist. It is already being challenged."

In her 2021 New Year's address, Frederiksen said that in the year
ahead, her government would continue to insist that immigrants
integrate into Danish society:

    "As a society, we must step more into character and stick to our
Danish values. We must not accept that democracy is replaced with
hatred in parallel societies. Radicalization must not be protected. It
must be revealed.

    "The government will rethink its integration efforts so that it is
based to a greater extent on clear requirements and clear expectations
with a focus on law and duty.

    "Basically, it must be the case that once you have been granted
residence in Denmark, you must of course support yourself. If this is
not possible for a period of time, the government will propose that
you — in return for your social welfare benefit — be obliged to
contribute the equivalent of a normal working week of 37 hours. These
are some of the tasks ahead of us in the new year."