Politics is a spectrum. You have two opposing views and people line up along the axis. You can arrange political parties along different axes like “capitalist/socialist”, “pro workers/pro investors” and so on.
One interesting axis for immigrants in Denmark is how pro-foreigner a party is. On one end of the continuum, you have people who believe that Denmark should be preserved with no new cultural (or indeed genetic), information coming in and at the other those that believe that Denmark is a multicultural society and should continue to develop as such.
I have noticed that you can measure where on the continuum any particular party is not by WHAT they say about foreigners but how carefully they word the exact same sentiment.
For example. If you were to ask the major political parties in Denmark “Do you think it is acceptable to stop children from foreign backgrounds going to certain schools to spread them out evenly across a borough?”
Danske Folkeparti, Venstre, Socialist Folkeparti and Social Democrats would all say they agreed but they would vary in how much care they took to mask their statement with political BS.
For those not into Danish politics. The first two are “blue” right wing parties, the first is an extreme right wing party. The last two are “red” left wing parties but fairly moderate.
I have not polled other parties on their opinions and I would find their answers most instructive. I suspect Enhedslisten and Konservatives would be “Against” and “Radical Venstre” would be “For” but that is just my gut.
What is the most disquieting about the whole thing is that the proposal to “spread children out” using discrimination during school admissions or removing free school choice is illegal. It is illegal under Danish law and illegal under international law. These four parties see nothing wrong with breaking the law but they only differ on how thick you need to lay it on to persuade everyone it is acceptable.
If you come from a country with good human rights lawyers, you can forget about them defending you here. Four children under the age of 12 have been deported without their families for being “unable to integrate” (though I think the most recent two had exceptions made for them but not a law change). The human rights lawyers have not peeped a word. Heaven knows what they are working on but they must be very busy not to want to take on those cases pro bono. They are slam dunks in any other country but here in Denmark we must have a trial by media and if we are worthy of being saved, the ministry steps in at the last minute and gives a stay of execution.
This idea of spreading children out in schools springs from the same impulses as racial segregation. People that hold these views do not view certain groups as all the way human. They’re not “folks”, they’re not “real” people. They’re “tosproger” or “efterkommere” or “udlændinge”.
Not only do they need their decisions made for them for their own good but they also need to be kept away from each other. It is seen as a priori true that having large groups of “foreigners” together is a bad thing.
If you probe a bit deeper to find out why they think this way, they say that They cannot speak the language, They cannot integrate, They cannot adapt to the culture, They cannot get jobs. This is “best for everyone”.
A child whose grandparents came from Bolivia has completely different needs from a child who has arrived in the last month from Argentina. Sure, they might have the same religion, linguistic family history and similar sorts of values but an “efterkommer” has massively different needs from a school than an “indvandrer”. For a start, the first girl will be for all intents and purposes “Danish” and she will need no help with her Danish language skills.
Still, if people in these political parties could see foreigners as real people and not blank faced immigrant automatons, they would recognise how this sort of thinking is highly prejudiced and unnuanced.
Even if they said they only wanted to spread out children who were not born in Denmark, they would be catching children who were toddlers when they moved here (and are therefore very Danish already), in their net. If they said that they wanted to spread out only children who arrived in the last five years, then they will have to accept the consequence that they will be taught by teachers who are non-specialists at bringing newcomers up to speed in the Danish language.
The idea is a load of bollocks. If they took the time to look at why the unemployment rate is higher in Denmark amongst foreigners, they would surely have to look at why so many foreigners in work are over-employed. If they looked at why some “tosprog” teens cannot seem to speak the language properly, they should also look at why so many “etsprog” teens also speak shitty Danish. If we are looking at gang culture, then we need to make sure that certain gangs are not given the green light for capturing our imaginations with their lovely motorcycles.
Fact is, the main Danish political parties do not see foreigners as fully human. Not the refugees, not the green card immigrants, not the Greenlanders, not the love immigrants. Even the “highly skilled” and “highly educated” luxury class of immigrant is a herd of cash cows. Something to be appeased with tax breaks and networking meetings with free biscuits. Their human needs to be accepted into a community are not taken seriously and besides, they are not expected to stay.
Foreigners are just “The Other” and all that differs is how gently the party puts it.
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