Multiculture is shattering the country, says award-winning author
In recent years, Serbian Birgithe Kosovic has distinguished herself in the debate about the consequences of immigration for the future of Danish society with several sensational essays. And she has done so from a surprising angle. Birgithe Kosovic comes from cultural life and is an award-winning author. On the occasion of the election on November 1, Berlingske met Kosovic for a chat about how the demographic changes such as non-Western immigration will affect Denmark.
This is not happy reading, but it is realism that the author puts on the table for us.
– If you understand the seriousness of this, then you will be afraid of yourself when you say these things out loud. Others also become afraid of one. And I understand that.
Birgithe Kosovic is brutally honest. Because she doesn’t have much hope left. And she is also afraid to expect from others.
Just as she insists that the message is more important than her own feelings. The fact is that Denmark is heading in the wrong direction, she says. And the consequences can be radical changes in our society.
The reason?
Immigration from non-Western countries is in the process of splitting up the national community in the formerly homogeneous Western European countries. Kosovic now gives a direct warning to the politicians that the distinction between Muslims and non-Muslims can be fatal for Denmark, because conflicts are inevitable in a multicultural society.
Voluntary apartheid
Kosovic’s analysis is bleak. Our society is being transformed into a «voluntary apartheid», she says. The elite can celebrate the diversity of the dishes in the pretty salons – far from the real world. And the politicians repeat time and time again that many non-Western immigrants are shamefully well integrated. But that is not true, says Kosovic. Because the actual conditions in society are that we live increasingly divided ethnically and culturally. And that can never be a sign of integration, she points out. On the contrary. It shows that the solution of society we continue at full speed.
People “vote” with their feet, meaning you settle where you feel at home.
The division, or segregation, is not dictated by the state, but rather by the population. In short, it is voluntary. When we can choose, we choose each other. And we do that because we are fundamentally different, she says. Opting out isn’t about hate, it’s about pragmatism. You want to be with people who care less about you because it makes everyday life easier, according to Kosovic. Alternatively, you have to make compromises. And nobody really wants that, she says.
– Self-segregation can affect all parts of society where it is a free choice. This applies to choosing a school for play, driving instructor, moving pattern and everything else. But if we don’t want each other as neighbours, as schoolmates, as colleagues, as managers, as teachers, as case workers in the municipality, as domestic helpers, as nurses, as politicians, as politicians and so on, what do we really want with each other?
The segregation is not least about the fact that Muslim immigrants come from clan-, tribe- and group-based societies. In the face of our individualistic culture, this becomes a collision, or a «silent explosion».
Writers and artists are known for their admiration for socialism and thus an unattainable multicultural swarm. However, Kosovic with Serbian roots comes from a country that was conquered by the Ottoman Empire as early as the 14th century. The occupation lasted for a full 500 years. In other words, she probably knows what she’s talking about. She points to statistics and what they tell:
– What happens at the junior high school is a very good indicator. Her youth actively choose each other when the proportion of immigrants exceeds 30 percent. It is a critical border where the community collapses and the Danes withdraw. If the trend does not stop, it will change society.
Berlingske asks Kosovic: What do you want to say to the Social Democrats and the political majority, who believe that the solution is a forced redistribution of the young?
– It is obvious that the models have a number of limits. After all, at some point we cannot continue to redistribute. And so I would like to ask them: If according to the Social Democrats it must be 30 percent at the upper secondary school, must it also be 30 percent in the country as a whole? And if it is a boundary, what happens when it is crossed?
The missing integration
The fact that we marry out of our own background can also be a plus for integration. But as is known, it is often the case that if we natives marry a Muslim, it is not uncommon for the natives to convert to Islam. Kosovic says the same thing that HRS has advocated from day one: Speaking Norwegian, working and following the laws in the country does not at all equate to being integrated.
– You will not be integrated if you, as an immigrant, only search together with your own people. Because then you contribute to exceeding the critical limits as in the advanced schools. As an individual, you may look well integrated, but if you are a dysfunctional part of a group, you are not integrated. Integration is not the same as disintegration.
The social changes are of historic dimensions, Kosovic points out. Cultural compromises between different peoples are far more difficult and economic compromises between different social classes. The latter is about pragmatics, while the former often becomes compromising – and even for both parties, something that encourages further fragmentation. The result is the disintegration of the state from within, says Kosovic.
So we get more states in the state, but not least has happened to the large Turkish population in Germany, which in the political backrooms is referred to as a fifth column. Kosovic says this is not “free imagination”:
– Yes, it is not free imagination when I say that it can disrupt the normal functioning of our public institutions if many employees have other ways of life and loyalty to their own parallel society. Several municipalities must, for example, have parallel IT systems for the centers for victims of violence, because the information about the woman otherwise flows into the parallel society. But because it all happens voluntarily, we as democrats have no concepts to criticize it. Self-segregation can plow uncritically through residential areas, public institutions, private companies and political parties, because it is the individual’s free choice. But it becomes extremely problematic when it comes to the police.
Why? Because the police have a monopoly on violence, which is the very basis for under the state. You see not least what has happened in clan-based Södertälje, where clan culture has seeped into all levels of society, and the police are often put out of action. When you can’t trust the police, you seek protection in another way, which is with your own and other non-governmental providers. This undermining of the rule of law is what really leads to radical changes to the state.
The silent, voluntary explosion
The problems do not resolve themselves, Kosovic believes. They are here to stay. And they have the potential to be really unfortunate for the future. Because in multi-group states it is always an inherent conflict. Sometimes the conflict is even armed, says Kosovic. We already see this in the ghetto areas, where an alternative monopoly of violence has emerged. Here it is a state within a state with its own laws, its own (Sharia) courts and its own (Sharia) police. There, it is the gangs, the imams and the clan leaders who decide. And if you, as an outsider, come into contact with the state in the state, no one can protect you, because the national state has lost its dominion over those areas, explains Kosovic.
– But we must protect people from the other monopoly on violence. The question is just how? We do it now by ringing any individuals that are threatened, but we have to ring a territory. Because it is so ineffective to circle around the individual. If our aim is to protect the individual, then the only alternative is protection of the territory.
Kosovic does not believe in a civil war in the classical sense with political declarations and demarcated territories. But the fact is that there is great division and conflict between different groups, says Kosvic.
– We are in the process of renouncing each other. Nobody knows how to stop it. No one is talking about how it will reshape society over time. The enclaves are growing, the terror has taken place, and we are devoting great resources to countering it. It’s like witnessing a silent explosion. And it’s quiet because it all happens voluntarily. It is not dictated or declared by anyone. In my eyes, it is naive to think that the conflict will never be armed to varying degrees. The mutual offer stories are already underway and the death violence has already taken place, rounded off the award-winning author.
Photo: From Kosovic’s Facebook profile.