Main Edition
US
FR
March 18, 2021 - 9:55am
With so much happening in Europe right now, yesterday’s news from Denmark hasn’t quite got the attention it deserves.
The gist of it is this: the Danish government is proposing to limit the share of ‘non-western’ residents in a particular neighbourhood to a maximum of 30%. It plans to achieve this goal within 10 years.
This begs a number of questions. For a start, what exactly do they mean by ‘non-western’? Who will be covered by that definition and how will they be identified? Do the restrictions apply to non-citizens only or will immigrants acquiring Danish and/or EU citizenship still fall under the same restricted category? And what about their children or grandchildren?
Will the policy be achieved through social housing allocations only — or will it also apply to private rented and owner-occupied housing? In neighbourhoods where the proportion of ‘non-western’ residents is already over 30% how will the goal of the new policy be achieved? Would ‘surplus’ residents be removed against their will?
If the Danish government wants to avoid the “risk of an emergence of religious and cultural parallel societies” (as The Guardian quotes the Danish interior minister as saying), does that apply to all parallel societies — or only to those deemed ‘non-western’? Would a monastery fall foul of the definition? Or a Jewish neighbourhood? Or a Chinatown? What about Freetown Christiania — Copenhagen’s long-established anarchist commune — is it deemed sufficiently western not to count as a ‘parallel’ society?
The Danish government would no doubt protest that its policies are all about integration — and greatly preferable to growth of marginalised migrant neighbourhoods. In other words, the Danes are taking a proactively progressive approach in contrast to the discriminatory neglect that results in the poverty and alienation found in towns and cities across Europe.
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
SubscribeI have been aware of this for some time, and speak to Danish people quite often. The fact is that Denmark is a small country that was in danger of losing its identity and purpose by hosting too many people who had no interest in taking part in Danish society – although of course they were quite happy to milk it financially. In that regard, something like 7% of the population receives something like 80% of the welfare, and we all know who those people are.
Even more interestingly, the Danes plan to inculcate the children of these people, from a very young age, with ‘Danish/western values’. Let’s see how that one works out.
Will that include the fabled Danish Hygge? (obviously after the Scamdemic has abated ).
I’ll paste some of your post with a little editing; “The fact is that England is a small country that was in danger of losing its identity and purpose by hosting too many people who had no interest in taking part in English society”.
(I didn’t say ‘British’ primarily because the population density is Scotland is a fraction of that of England, and I doubt that immigrants are to be found throughout.)
True, but in the case of England we have a government anxious to pack in even more. Remember how the Blair govt., rightly, found itself in trouble for “sending out hunting parties to round up immigrants” and bring them here?
Well, the Johnson govt. is quite open about it. It has established an “Office for Talent” in no.10. whose job it is to scour the globe for willing immigrants (shouldn’t be too difficult) and bring them here, smoothing the way with simplified visa processes and advice on settling in.
Aren’t the Tories wonderful? And the other lot even worse?
The educated, motivated “talent” is not the problem as we know, it is the undereducated and needy that cause the cultural challenges. However, as we recall from the Blair years and the famous LSE “studies” proving somehow that any old immigrant will be a net tax payer (can you believe anyone fell for that..) the intention to fill quotas for the former is just a cover for an inability to come up with any practical way to slow down the latter.
I once tried to explain to a media type the fascinating detail from D. Murray’s book The Strange Death of Europe, that the LSE “study” used a young French IT entrepreneur as a typical immigrant example, in order to measure the fiscal benefit to the UK of immigrants. He told me I was a borderline Nazi…
That’s the thing, you can’t debate this subject rationally without being lumped in with the far-right.
Lose-lose.
multi-culturalism clearly not in fashion anymore in Denmark, then!
No. And as I explained to a Dutch friend last week, the left in Denmark stole the policies of the right in order to win the last election.
Interestingly, Labour in the UK recently encouraged the government NOT to raise taxes on small businesses, so perhaps we will start fo see this process play out in the UK.
Yep, they never fell for the Euro either..
I “stole” the policy from my parents to get a good education.
Can’t see it extending to social policies. The activist left is far too powerful here. Or maybe it’s the number of hard-left MPs. Not sure the Danish left have such issues?
Empiricism – they did give it a go, but have decided if they don’t do something drastic, then Denmark is lost….like England.
Its only maths, and passage of time.
But pointing this out makes you “far right”. You see how the mainstream narrative has strangled the debate? I reckon the average (white) Brit would sympathise with these arguments, but they get shamed by the liberal media into feeling guilty.
Knowing Danish government culture, it is a safe bet that this principle will be used only for the cases where the kind of ‘parallel society’ is seen to cause problems, and would be implemented reasonably, without forced expulsions. Any monasteries should be quite safe. Still, it is problematical.
For those who do not know Danish politics, being ‘tough on immigration’ is Danish consensus now, shared to varying degrees by all parties except the equivalent of the Lib Dems, the Greens, and the Socialist Workers Party. Labour changed tack when it became clear that they would keep losing votes and stay out of government otherwise. Some of the immigration laws are really quite tough.
Denmark, like Sweden, used to pride itself on how tolerant it was – back when the people you had to tolerate lived somewhere else. With significant immigration popular feeling got increasingly opposed, while the cultural the elite tried to suppress any such opposition as morally unacceptable. In Sweden the suppression worked. In Denmark anti-immigration sentiment became so widespread – and voted – that it became impossible to ignore, so that Denmark ended up less tolerant – but more democratic – than Sweden.
Good for the Danes. Like most of us they realise that nationality and place are more than administrative conventions – that they relate to identity, foundation of sanity; and place, foundation of order. Denmark will only remain Denmark if the Danes remain preponderant within it – an obvious truth, now carrying real penalties for those who express it at work, in public or in open forum. And if a country ceases to be itself, then the rump population has the right to re-define itself in non-national ways, in order to preserve that identity – but this too is forbidden. Why? Because it finally gives the lie to the first phase of Left Modernist social engineering, predicated on hard-line universalist doctrine, that populations would naturally integrate. And how easily this ban morphs into the demonization of that rump population, being carried out by the second phase Left Modernists – or “woke”, under the terms of which the native peoples of countries such as Denmark “deserve” their punishment. We are coming full circle but with a diabolical twist: from nationalism through universalism to inverted nationalism, in which the elite of various societies preaches the disdain and suppression of its own people.
There is no integration by the immigrants. They set up ghettoes. Late Frank Dobson MP told me they do it to ‘protect themselves. So is mass immigration integration working? I don’t think so. Even in a tolerant and passive country like the UK, it is struggling to work things out. After all, Islam, the biggest problem, has no history on these islands. And what is the aim of Islam but to dominate?
In Denmark anti-immigration sentiment became so widespread – and voted – that it became impossible to ignore, so that Denmark ended up less tolerant – but more democratic – than Sweden.
Tolerance cuts both ways. The term is usually defined as putting up with things you don’t like so long as those things are not forced on you. That last part is often forgotten, conveniently so. When the newcomers make a mess, that’s going to create some anti-something sentiment. Blaming the victim is a poor strategy.
Post the Brexit referendum I recall seeing a number of letters in the press from correspondents boasting that they were leaving ‘xenophobic’ Britain for the enlightened and welcoming Denmark. Made me laugh anyway.
They probably had a change of heart bless them….
I imagine you could count the number who actually left England for Denmark on the fingers of one hand.
Similar to the US luvvies threatening to leave if Trump was elected. How many actually went?
You shouldn’t laugh, even as we speak Sinbad & Co are flocking to the French beaches for the great crossing/migration.
My spies inform me you can’t buy a rubber dinghy, water wings, plastic canoe or even a lilo ‘for love nor money’ from any Hypermarket in Calais or Boulogne.
Maybe they could use that winged horse Mohamed flew to heaven on.
No, he’s at Cheltenham this week.
Seems like they have moved to an enlightened Denmark – but will struggle to admit it now.
Sadly they have all ‘remained’!
(No pun in intended).
I live in London and I am a 75 years old ethnic minority in my own UK capital city. I am just waiting for the results of the UK census to see how much further the figures show me becoming an even bigger white Scots ethnic minority statistic. I have the right to be in England as my father was English!!! Where else would I go, oh yes Scotland but then the SNP with the help of Humza Yusuf’s Pakistani Muslim support has introduced a new law clamping down on free speech and Sturgeon is calling for greater immigration from anywhere, preferably Muslim countries because they too don’t like questions being asked and discussions on controversial subjects. Look how outsiders see us. Mark Steyn Talks About London Getting Taken Over – YouTube
The Danes are just catching up!
You forget to mention that wonderful little pygmy who hails from Hindustan, the Mayor of London.
Scotland is idiotic, but currently London is no better.
Ah, what a breath of fresh air he is. When did it become a crime to want to preserve your community?
I too would like my West-European welfare state to be protected. 80% of population growth in my country is through migration and unfortunately, we do not do any selection in order to keep our welfare state at least at the same level because talking about migration in any way is taboo.
An awful lot of questions from the author. They aren
t worth answering, Im afraid. Ill explain the situation to him in a few lines, as it seems obvious. I know very little about Denmark - clearly he knows even less.ll be having problems with high crime levels, bigotry, intolerance, welfare dependence etc. The cause will be not only but very much mainly Muslim and/or African immigrants and/or their descendants.They
They
d like to solve the problem but are fully aware that the EU, lawyers, collaborators, etc. are all eager to step in, so theyre trying to negotiate a minefield.Clearer now, Peter? It`s not about monasteries!
As Sgt Dixon of Dock Green used to say “ the usual suspects.”
Strangely, Charles, that very line crossed my mind as I was writing the comment, although it was the film of that title that came into my head.
The author was not so much asking questions as begging them.
You mean Denmark wants to remain Danish? It is curious how we never see this sort of demographic and cultural pearl-clutching over the behavior of certain nations who go quite a bit farther than neighborhood percentage counts.
This begs a number of questions.
To be fair, there was a good bit of question-begging in this article.
At least the Danes are trying to create integration, so much better than the nonsense of multiculturalism and establishment of ghettos.
The western nations have made a gigantic c**k up with immigration and it is starting to backfire and having serious consequences for ordinary citizens. Mark Steyn Talks About London Getting Taken Over – YouTube
Finding the definition was not very hard. According to the Danish government statistical bureau:
Western/Non-western countries: Western countries: All 28 EU countries and Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, Switzerland, Vatican State, Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand.
Non-western countries: All other countries.
Source: https://www.dst.dk/en/Statistik/dokumentation/documentationofstatistics/immigrants-and-descendants/statistical-presentation
If I can find this in 2 minutes of googling, how well researched is the rest of this quite biased article? The author has spent more time on gloomy scenario’s than basic research.
So neither the UK or Israel are included? How interesting!
I think the English page hasn’t been updated since Brexit so the UK still falls in the west. And I guess Israel is indeed deemed as non-western.
Fascinating on both counts! I love your expression “UK STILL falls in the west”,
Thank you..
Britanistan.
Sadly it’s only a matter of time unless a ‘saviour’ appears.
Well it does have lots of Arabs and Africans.
Israel isn’t in the west. We hardly need to give more fuel to the anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists out there.
I disagree. Geographically yes, but culturally, ideological and military not so.
Even the geographical argument is rather modern/dodgy.
In the great days of the Pax Romana, Judea, later Syria Palestrina was firmly in the club.
I found this too.
Seeing as Mr. Franklin admires the Amish so much maybe he should go live on a farm and earn an honest wage instead of being paid for old rope like this opinion piece that he clearly dashed off in half an hour.
A New statistic regime has been established last autum. Foreigners are being split into MENAP = Africa, middleEast (including Turkey) , muslim asian countries and other. The reason was that in some statistics the MENAP results were hiding behind ‘Other Countries’ ( school results, unemployment rates, crime ). Some say it’s racist, but the differences are statistical facts. You have to know them to act upon them. I think we are honest and straight in our demands to migrants.
Centre-left economics and centre-right culture is the magic electoral sauce. The Woke Left should (and will not) take note.
so agree with you on this!
Not one party in my country does this :-(. Migration is utterly taboo.
Agreed 100%
I once watched a documentary about a Danish warship rescuing people off a boat in the Mediterranean.
I was struck by the confidence with which the doctor judged whether or not someone was an adult by examining the wrist. That does not happen in the UK. There is a furore when someone’s claim to be a ‘child’ isn’t accepted, with interviewees declaring on television that it is impossible to tell. The Home Office has no media or political support, and it does what bureaucrats always do, which is to take the easiest option and accept whatever the subject claims, despite the foolishness in some cases. Consequences include inappropriate placing of obvious mature males with real children, and obligatory state support well into maturity.
Denmark may be trying to head off the situation we see in France with entire neighborhoods basically no-go zones for non immigrants. It has become untenable and un policeable in France. Denmark may be smart to do this as well as to insist that first and second generation immigrants understand where they live.
The answer to the (clickbait) headline question is obviously “No”
Not quite sure how “spreading them around thinly” will pan out for the Danes, esp. in the long run when the “thin” thickens by the undanes’ explosively high birthrates / chain immigration etc.
In a way, a clearly isolated ghetto might prove to be more logistically manageable than the specimens plopped around randomly into society, once their numbers hit a critical mass. Frankly, i cannot fathom any rational reason why there should be such a high number of blacks/muslims in any European country, integrated or not.
Because it’s enriching, isn’t it?
How do you determine who is non-Danish/western? Perceived kinship. It works both ways. For instance, Muslims do not think kafirs are kin, while Christians view Islam as an alien religion. Therefore, Islam is non-western.
In the states, Rachel Dolezal thought and still thinks she is black and was even made an NAACP chapter president. When the blacks found out who her parents were they quickly discovered she wasn’t kin. Ergo, Dolezal isn’t black.
Doelzal isn’t black and never was. She got caught passing as black. Lots of people try it. Even US Senators. Lots of benefits to being black or brown in the US.
What absolute nonsense. She should be transported to Mars, ASAP!
More Pakistanis fewer Poles. That is Brexit for you. Pakistan on the Atlantic?
The Danish approach sounds unsustainable, for the various reasons outlined in the article.
The first step must be to stop the problem getting worse, through immigration policies and very demanding integration requirements. No public services or public documents other than in the local language. No vote to people who can’t speak the language. Provisional citizenship for 5-10 years; any crimes in that time, failure to learn the language – citizenship opportunity gone.
Western democracies are committing slow-motion suicide. It has to stop.
I agree, those would be a good start here. No one will have the guts though.
One of the ways to qualify for the inestimable gift of Roman Citizenship in the Pax Romana was to serve in the Roman Army for 25 years.
On discharge (about 60% made it) you received the citizenship not only for yourself but for your ‘ belly warmer’ ( service was unmarried) who became your legal wife and your ‘bastards’ who now also became citizens. All of this by the ‘ius connubbii’ – the right of marriage.
It other words privileges have to be EARNED.
Multiculturalism. Think about that – it’s come to mean separate cultures.
Look at the upside; the Danish electorate has more or less forced a major political party of the left to admit that there is an immigration problem and attempt to do something about it.
Good idea to discourage formation of ghettos, they are pretty undesirable. Prevent integration
So Peter is struggling (feigning though I think, he knows perfectly well) as to who non-western people are.
Non-western, in all likelihood, means people who are not from a Christian lineage.
OK now Pete, does that clear things up a bit and help your understanding of the situation in Denmark?
Precisely, Denmark is under assault by what we used to call ‘wogs’, admit it.
Why is this a ‘threat’?
Interesting how those defending their “right” to remain a majority in their countries of birth do so on the grounds of “I was here first”. This was never how the world works, and is not about to change.
Let’s be clear on a few hurtful points here:
1) the self-proclaimed “Westerners” (who among others excluded the whole of South America, where I came from…) won’t bother having children. That would require too much effort and upset their “right” to copious salaries and leisure time.
2) the same “Westerners” play ostrich with the dire prognostic for their retirement if their population keeps shrinking. Note what is happening to Japan as we speak.
3) the “Westerners” want no responsibility for the consequences of their “right” to insist on pointless university degrees, which lead to no jobs and no taxes paid, etc.
4) armed with their “right” to say whatever they wish with impunity, they consistently omit the existence of very well educated, industrious and ambitious “non-Westerners” whose skills surpass their own. All “non-Westerners” are a liability, according to the narrative, unless they agree to erase their own cultural identity to embrace that of the “West”.
So yeah, the “West” will fade, whether “Westerners” like it or not. Not because of inability to come up with legislation that could prevent their demise, but because of their own embarrassing self-entitlement and inability to work harder than the “non-Westerners” and put in the effort.
I do note; and what is happening there is that they handle it eminently well. The situation affects a small and finite number of generations anyway; once it has tided over the population decrease is a good outcome. Shame it cannot be done globally. Mind you, Japan rejects thirdworld mass-immigration. And rightly so.
The what?? Where the hell were you living throughout the last 10+ years, in a cave under a rock? Or were you making ze joke i didn’t catch?
“West” is a geographical concept. There may be those who take it in a similar vein as the genderconfused take their genders and proclaim themselves to be transwesterners and whatnot, but still it’s not a matter of self-identification.
You may want to look at what Hungary is doing. Giving copious incentives (non-refundable grants, tax breaks, etc. – you name it) to working families who are willing to have more than two children. And it works – after decades of declining birthrates, births are on the increase.
What business is it of the any government to tell people where to live? I can’t see any possible defence of this idea.
Any way of achieving this would involve discrimination, ethnic cleansing or both. People would need to be classified by race or origin (I can just imagine the response from Jewish groups at being asked to register as Jewish, or indeed any group having to register). Maybe different groups could wear different insignia so everyone would know which group they belong to (yellow stars for Jews maybe?).
It is very seldom that an idea comes along which has absolutely no merit whatsoever. This, however, is the best example that I have seen for a while of why politicians should have less, not more power. Utterly idiotic, they should be ashamed of themselves.
It is the business of the govt when the govt is providing you with a home and giving you large amounts of welfare etc. And that is the case with most of these people in Denmark.
Have a look around you. A lot of the ‘groups’ you are presumably defending already wear ‘insignia’ completely voluntarily ( at least in the male case) : the beards, the little hats, the burka, the niqab….. ( not all at the same time)
Of course, the Christian insignia is quite often banned by employers, perhaps we could reinstate it, Mr Wilkes? No, I thought you wouldn’t be so keen on that.