Full activity obligation for immigrants living on social benefits
It is not that often that you read Danish news in one of France’s largest newspapers, but the news about a full week of compulsory activity for immigrants who are outside the labor market has aroused interest in the southern European country. Le Figaros political journalist writes that the Danish immigration and integration policy is inspired by other European countries.
Failed policy
Le Figaro notes that it is the Danish left in politics that has been the leader in pursuing a strict immigration policy. The newspaper points out that the “Danish Social Democrats have for several years pursued a policy of drastically reducing the migration flow – to the point that Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is more and more often compared to her Hungarian colleague Viktor Orban.”
the Scandinavian country believes that it is about the consequences of the welfare state: while the Danes were previously supporters of a very generous social model, they fear that opening borders for asylum-seeking drivers gives unreasonable benefits. More than anything, the Danes fear that importing mass unemployment will cause irreparable damage to the welfare state.
Le Figaro explains the political thinking behind the Danish Social Democrats’ strong integration policy by showing Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen’s plan:
– For many years we have done people a disservice by not making demands on them. We want to introduce a work logic where people have a duty to contribute and be useful, and if they cannot find a regular job, they must work for the benefit, says Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
Then Fredriksen’s proposed measures are also very reality-oriented, and not least truly integrative. If you make demands on people, they are happy to do more. As an old therapist, I am tempted to point out that the Danes’ approach to passive benefit recipients is in reality far more caring than an undemanding alms policy. It is quite simply the same in politics as in life; People are who you allow them to be. If you allow people to exploit an economic system, they will. It’s basically normal psychology. That such “simple” solutions simultaneously work against both the recipients’ self-esteem and integration does not seem to have occurred to Norwegian politicians, but the Danes seem to have understood this – and they have the political majority to do something about it.
In its project “Denmark can do more”, the government, which has been in place since June 2019, notes that six out of ten women from the Maghreb, Turkey and the Middle East are outside the Danish labor market. This is despite the fact that the country is described by many observers as being in a situation with a shortage of labor – an argument that is also often used by supporters of a more open migration policy.
The ambition is therefore initially to integrate 20,000 people by encouraging them to find jobs via the municipalities. “It can be a job on the beach picking up cigarette butts or plastic (…) or helping to solve various tasks in a company,” said Labor Minister Peter Hummelgaard. “The most important thing for us is that people leave their homes”, whether they are new arrivals or have been receiving benefits for a long time, he insisted, writes Le Figaro.
It may seem strange that it is presented as a paradox that a country with high unemployment at the same time has a zero vision for immigration, but the logic is clear: there are many tasks that can be performed by immigrants who are already in Denmark.
Danish immigration concern
While the previous election campaign in Denmark was characterized by a climate focus, immigration and integration issues are again what the average Dane is concerned with, states Le Figaro. And they may be right, because with a significant drop in asylum applications and a European consensus on stricter immigration policy, it is logical that the elections focus for a period on something completely different from migration issues. The effects of mass immigration, on the other hand, have not disappeared works in Norway or Denmark, and immigration nevertheless takes place in the form of more and more family reunifications, and the negative societal effects are evident in the form of increased externality and increased crime in every European country that has opened its doors to Mena- migrant. The Danes have been clear that they do not want to search on Danish land as a result of this.
Earlier this year, Mette Frederiksen set a target of zero asylum applications, even though the number of asylum applications has already fallen to a very low level – 851 between 1 January and 31 July. And in June the Prime Minister announced that these applications will now be processed in a third country, outside Europe, in exchange for financial aid paid to these countries. This initiative was so far the first in Europe. Among the countries that the authorities contacted for this purpose were Egypt, Tunisia and Rwanda.
Le Figaro points out that, after all, Denmark has a lower proportion of non-Western immigrants in France, and between the lines you can read that journalist Paul Sugy has a horn in his side for French politicians who lack an overview.
According to the Danish Central Statistics Office, which, unlike in France, is more used to identifying the origin of the national population, 11 percent of Denmark’s 5.8 million are -western». This is still much lower than the other Scandinavian countries (19.5 percent of Sweden’s population are immigrants, according to the OECD).
National consciousness
Le Figaro writes that Danes have managed to revive a form of national consciousness in the wake of the migration flow, and describes a shift from a naive desire to protect refugees to an awareness of the negative consequences of immigration. It is the ability to see developments and the willingness to make demands on the immigrant population that are unique on a European scale, says the French newspaper. Not that it has gone from a benevolent welcome of thousands to immigration resistance overnight, but that Danes have been clearer in registering how immigrants end up in a negative spiral when they settle in the country.
Le Figro refers to Silvia Adamo, who has researched Danish immigration policy:
The debate on the integration of foreigners in Denmark gained momentum from the 1990s, when a series of commissions after a change of government in 1993 revealed that foreigners were a particularly vulnerable group. Research results indicate that unemployment and low education were more common among foreigners among Danes. Foreigners lived isolated in marginalized groups and neighborhoods, separated from the rest of Danish society, and ethnicity began to become a barrier between foreigners and Danish citizens.
It is this barrier that the Danish social democrats want to eliminate when they want social assistance recipients to be active. Denmark and Mette Fredriksen have already gone to great lengths for a number of measures to counteract ghettoification, and the activity obligation is intended to force passive benefit recipients out of their own living rooms and into Danish society as active participants. The logic is obvious; nobody is integrated by sitting at home.
Le Figaro believes that Denmark’s zero vision for asylum seekers should and can inspire the EU, and promotes Denmark as a leading country.
The way the Danes are tightening the screws on migration policy can be imitated elsewhere in Europe. Well, it seems that the union’s foreign policy is approaching Danish decisions: the agreement that was made with Erdogan so that migrants at the gates to Europe are kept in Turkey and do not cross the border is an illustration of this. Italia has started negotiations in this direction with Tunisia.
Where is the Norwegian government?
One can rightly wonder whether the Støre government puts its fingers in its ears when representatives of its sister party in Denmark talk openly about realpolitik measures in immigration and integration policy.
It is only a few days since the government’s Minister of Justice Emilie Enger Mehl (Sp) came out with a completely out-of-date plan to get rid of immigrant violence in the capital in particular and other immigrant-dense areas in general.
– The fight against the criminal circles must take place along several tracks. Advance planning is absolutely essential, and many actors are then important. We depend on family, school, child protection, Nav, voluntary organizations and political jobs to solve the challenges together, said the Minister of Justice in a comment to NTB.
The Ap-led Norwegian government does not seem to have understood the difference between preventing and rewarding outsiderness. While Danes make demands for active community participation, the Støre government continues to propose measures that have already been tried and failed, which in reality must be experienced as a reward for a lack of integration effort. This week we shed light on how the reward looks like for several hundred of the unintegrated earlier this week, in the case Immigrants on social benefits get help to buy their own house – an unfair system with serious incentives.
The project «Bør first from the Husbanken that «disadvantaged families with children with low income can buy their own home, even if they are not initially approached about serviceability for ordinary start-up loans». More than 80 percent of those who get their own home are immigrants, many of whom live solely on benefits. Not only is the project grossly unfair to families with children who generally struggle to enter the housing market. It is tailored to a structural structure that keeps immigrants in self-chosen outsiders.
Is the Støre government not keeping up with the times? Do they just have to continue the irresponsible migration policy, which is running rampant both at the individual and societal level?