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2011-02-10 06:35:59
10 February 2011 Last updated at 00:15 GMT
By Chris Bowlby BBC Radio 4
Mock marriage performed by activists during a demonstration outside the Danish
parliament The tough law on marriages involving a foreign-born spouse has led
to satirical mock weddings
Critics of Denmark's tightening rules on immigration and integration say the
country is violating European norms, including human rights legislation. How
much has Denmark's approach to these issues been transformed under pressure
from a right-wing populist party?
It looks, at first, like a familiar Scandinavian scene.
Outside the Danish parliament in Copenhagen, an international crowd mixing
Danish citizens, immigrants from all kinds of backgrounds, is enjoying music
and theatre.
"Afro-Danes" are here, reflecting Denmark's long interest in African
developments and its past offers of asylum to those fleeing conflicts in Africa
and elsewhere.
The crowd laughs as a couple stage a mock marriage. An official asks whether
they are marrying "purely for immigration purposes" and "plan to live in a
ghetto".
Behind the humour, there is serious anxiety. Denmark has recently tightened its
immigration laws again, with a points system designed to make it more difficult
for "family reunion" to bring foreigners into the country through marriage.
And the language of "ghettoes", warnings of a threat to "Danish values", are
now heard routinely in political and popular debate.
Points system
There are new stricter requirements for would-be immigrants, and for those
already in Denmark, who wish to marry a Dane. This is in addition to the
already high minimum age of 24 for both the Danish and the foreign would-be
spouse, proof of financial independence and an "active commitment to Danish
society".
Anti-DPP protestors outside the Danish parliament Opponents of the new points
system made their feelings known outside the Danish parliament
The new points system had Thomas Miller, a Dane, and his Mexican wife Carolina
so worried they might now have to leave Denmark, that they went to lobby MPs in
parliament.
"We are both graduates, we have been living in Denmark for eight years, working
and paying our taxes, with no debts to the public system. Despite this, she
would get no points," says Thomas.
"It's as if they don't want Danes to marry foreigners anymore. It's very
worrying," Carolina adds.
"I'm speechless, it's so unjust," says Thomas. "It's all about the stick,
there's no carrot."
Human rights breaches
European and international bodies have pointed out that some of these laws and
regulations could be in breach of human rights legislation.
Professor Margot Horspool, a specialist in European law at the British
Institute of International and Comparative Law, says that the restrictions on
marrying foreigners "almost certainly breach European Union law in respect of
discrimination as to ethnic origin, and possibly as to age".
She also believes the rules may violate EU legal protection of "the right to
family life".
Another tightening of the rules prohibits state-funded hostels for the homeless
from accepting foreigners who do not have permanent residency status. Reports
say that this has led to people freezing to death in the sub-zero winter
temperatures.
This, suggests Professor Horspool, breaks EU legal commitments not to subject
individuals to inhuman or degrading treatment, laws that amount to an
"obligation on the member state to ensure that humans are not left out in the
street to freeze or indeed to starve."
TO MARRY A FOREIGNER
other country
The Danish government denies that its laws breach human rights, and says the
24-year age restriction is to prevent forced marriages.
Naser Khader, himself of Palestinian and Syrian descent, is now the immigration
spokesman for the Conservatives, part of the governing coalition which depends
on the votes of the DPP, the anti-immigration Danish People's Party.
He defends the toughened immigration policies: "We have a lot of people with an
immigrant background who married cousins from their parents' villages, who came
to Denmark with no language skills, education or work experience and became a
great cost to Danish society."
"Denmark should welcome anybody who wants to contribute to this society, but we
don't want people who don't want to contribute," he adds.
Populism
All this is part, say critics, of a decade-long transformation in Denmark's
approach to immigration and integration, under pressure from the populist
Danish People's party, the DPP.
Pia Kjaersgaard DPP leader Pia Kjaersgaard enjoys holding the balance of power
in parliament
The DPP is led by Pia Kjaersgaard, a former social worker in an old people's
home. "We founded the party because of too many immigrants," she says.
She likes to present a homely, common sense image. "I am very powerful," she
told me, "but I am also just a housewife and mother".
Denmark's Muslim population are the party's particular focus. There are many
Muslims, its says, who are unwilling to integrate and hostile to "Danish
values" such as free speech.
The "cartoons crisis" in 2005 boosted DPP support, when a Danish newspaper
published cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohammed. Many Muslims in Denmark and
abroad objected, some violently.
The party has yet to win more than around 15% of the vote in elections. But
what has given it such influence is Denmark's coalition politics. For a decade
ruling parties have depended on DPP MPs to get legislation through.
In return, the DPP has secured other parties' agreement to ever stricter rules
on immigration and integration.
Toeger Seidenfaden The late Toeger Seidenfaden regretted many Danish
politicians' decreasing interest in human rights
This has "made everyone aware of [the DPP's] power," the late Toger
Seidenfaden, Denmark's top political commentator, told me shortly before his
death last month. The DPP has become "highly visible", and is seen as the
"winner of the game", he said.
Mainstream parties originally tried to ignore the DPP or dismiss it as "not
house-trained", unworthy of political attention.
But more recently several parties have abandoned that stance, accepting the DPP
as permanent part of the political and parliamentary scene.
In Denmark, as in many other European countries, new populist parties and
movements are moving from the margins and shaping the way immigration and
integration is debated.