Copenhagen clamps down

Denmark enjoys the world's highest social benefits

By Robin Oakley
CNN European Political Editor

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (CNN) -- Few cities give a warmer welcome to tourists than Copenhagen, the Danish capital known as the Venice of the North.

They flock to see the famous Little Mermaid statue and the elegant canalside buildings. But for foreigners seeking to stay longer, Denmark is no longer beckoning.

The new centre-right government has hit would-be immigrants and asylum seekers with the toughest entry laws in Europe:

• It now takes nine years to get a resident's permit and qualify for full social benefits.

• No immigrant under 24 can bring in a partner.

• There's no legal right to reunification with a spouse who is already here.

Denmark will now help only those it's legally obliged to. But Bertel Haarder, Denmark's immigration minister, is unapologetic.

A country offering the highest social benefits and minimum wage in the world had to change, he says.

"We have full employment, but among immigrants and refugees employment is going down and down and down," Haarder says.

"Four out of five couples where both are on welfare are asylum seekers or immigrants, and a think tank says the number will triple in 20 years. Something had to be done."

Would-be asylum seekers at a Red Cross refuge on the Copenhagen quayside, seeking to learn local ways while keeping their own culture alive, were fearful.

Peter, penalised after a political demonstration, had escaped from a Ugandan jail.

"If I didn't get asylum in Denmark, and if it is to be that I have to be taken back to Uganda, then it will be a bad situation for myself, for my life," he says.

With the new government having signalled its intentions, immigration has halved already, says Ibrahim Gada, a refugee from the Berber minority persecuted in Libya.

12,000 people applied for asylum in Denmark in 2001

"I'm so surprised, because I came from a land where we considered Denmark and Scandinavia were a model in human rights and treating foreigners," says Gada. "But now it's changing very fast and dramatically."

What made the Danes ready to tighten their immigrant laws so drastically?

Backers and opponents of the new laws agree it is not racism. It's more a small country's fear of a globalised outside world -- and worry that Denmark's prized high-benefit welfare state could be at risk.

With the 5 percent immigrant minority highly visible, Danish experts acknowledge that integration has been a problem.

And everything from abroad, even the European Union, is seen as a threat to the welfare state.

"We do not have too many immigrants and refugees," says Andreas Kamm of the Danish Refugee Council. "We have too many immigrants and refugees who are not self-sufficient."

By introducing the toughest immigration laws in Europe, previously liberal Denmark has surprised many other countries. Indeed, it's surprised many Danes.

The question now is whether it has set a benchmark which will be adopted elsewhere as EU countries seek a common policy on asylum and immigration.

Back to top