--- title: Denmark Enters Frightening Territory With "Ghetto" Policies description: Unabashed political interests, not humane social policy, is what matters to xenophobic movements. canonical: https://time.com/5329100/denmark-ghetto-policies-liberal-europe/ author: Amro Ali article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-03T13:36:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:45:20.981Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Denmark Is Entering Frightening New Territory With "Ghetto" Policies og:description: What matters to xenophobic movements are political interests, not humane policy og:url: https://time.com/5329100/denmark-ghetto-policies-liberal-europe/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta76ad7208a82325b/69893477929fad724abf0fb3/denmark-protest-islam.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5616 og:image:height: 3159 og:image:alt: British Pegida leaders speaks at an anti-Islam demonstration in Copenhagen og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Denmark Is Entering Frightening New Territory With "Ghetto" Policies twitter:description: What matters to xenophobic movements are political interests, not humane policy twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta76ad7208a82325b/69893477929fad724abf0fb3/denmark-protest-islam.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Denmark’s “Ghetto” Policies Are an Ominous Sign That Liberal Europe Is Starting to Unravel at the Seams > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Amro Ali](https://time.com/author/amro-ali/) ## Amro Ali Jul 3, 2018 1:36 PM UTC  Participants in the anti-Muslim demonstration in Copenhagen wich had participation of U.K. Pegida leaders. The demonstration was organized by the group "For Frihed" (read: For Freedom), whose aim is to combat "Islamization of Denmark and the West." Participants in the anti-Muslim demonstration in Copenhagen wich had participation of U.K. Pegida leaders. The demonstration was organized by the group "For Frihed" (read: For Freedom), whose aim is to combat "Islamization of Denmark and the West."Ole Jensen—Corbis via Getty Images by [Amro Ali](https://time.com/author/amro-ali/) ## Amro Ali Jul 3, 2018 1:36 PM UTC At the blazing apogee of the Second World War, a poignant [essay](http://amroali.com/2017/04/refugees-essay-hannah-arendt/) on the embattled life of refugees and immigrants was published in an obscure 1943 journal. Written by Hannah Arendt, the German-Jewish philosopher and political theorist, and, by then, embittered refugee, the essay closed with the words: “The comity of European peoples went to pieces when, and because, it allowed its weakest member to be excluded and persecuted.” Arendt’s message was soberingly simple: Targeting a vulnerable group is the start of unraveling processes that bring greater and far-reaching ruin. This year, Denmark’s xenophobia and move to the right has entered frighteningly new territory to supposedly prevent immigrants forming a “parallel society.” Let’s not forget that Denmark already has the Bohemian autonomous Christiania—which has caused decades of headaches for the Danish government but whose inhabitants are still less stigmatized than immigrants. Among the [many changes](http://time.com/5328347/denmark-ghettos-policies/), children from “ghetto” areas—where more than 50% of the population are non-Western immigrants, mainly Muslims—will have to attend obligatory daycare for 25 hours or more a week from the age of 1, so that they learn “Danish values” and traditions, like Christmas and Easter. A law under consideration would impose a four-year prison sentence for parents who commit “re-education trips”—sending their children on “extended” visits to the parent’s country of origin. The legislation reads like a 19th century missionary enterprise, a colonial experiment to civilize the brown folks. The peril is that this form of divisive politics will seep deeper into the tapestry of the illiberal anti-immigrant pan-European movement. Denmark is not just setting a precedent; it is sparking a game of one-upmanship in the performance of transnational bigotry. If immigrants fully “assimilated” or vanished from the land, then the logic might follow the xenophobic movements would close shop and populist parties would scale back their rhetoric and shift policies to mundane domestic affairs. That rarely happens. Such movements and parties stake their existential politics on discriminatory and exclusionary practices (despite the claim of inclusionary intentions of wanting to assimilate the immigrants) which are then further reignited along election cycles. Unabashed political interests, not humane social policy, is what matters to them. As soon as the initial victims are exhausted, new targets are sought out. Hatred and fear never operate within rational boundaries. It’s all-pervasive; passions take over level-headed policy deliberation—not surprising, the Danish government [did not involve](https://www.thelocal.dk/20180302/danish-politicians-react-to-governments-ghetto-plan) experts, researchers and residents in the discussions. It echoes Arendt’s _The Origins of Totalitarianism_: “For the only thing that counts in a movement is precisely that it keeps itself in constant movement.” Prior to Britain’s 2016, referendum on membership of the E.U., [some in the pro-Brexit campaign](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/nov/16/nigel-farage-accuse-british-muslims-conflicting-loyalties) focused on [trying to end Muslim immigration](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/29/british-muslims-europe-remain-brexit). But quickly after Britain voted to leave, racial vilification and attacks [quickly spread](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/sep/19/embassies-alleged-hate-crimes-since-brexit-vote) to target Poles, Latvians, Romanians, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Jews and, perhaps the least expected, the [Swedes](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/16/ann-linde-swedish-minister-xenophobia-swedes-uk-brexit). Norway-based Muslim intellectual, Iyad el-Baghdadi, [points out](https://twitter.com/iyad%5Felbaghdadi/status/759045232180727808) that “minorities are the canaries in the coal mine.” The state of their well-being, fear, anxiety, flight, is a bellwether of their overall society—whether it be Muslims in Europe, Christians in the Middle East, Shiites in Saudi Arabia, Kurds in Turkey, Baha’is in Iran, Hindus in Pakistan, or African-Americans in the United States. When the toxic gas of populist exclusion is diffused through society, the minority is the first to succumb to it. However, others soon follow. Fractures appear in dominant groups, and the fabric can go to pieces. Denmark’s policies should make us all wary. This idea of cleansing society of immigrants marks the dismantling of higher ideals, pluralist values, and ethical standards. The mishandling of the “ghetto” question may just be the embryonic stage of a bigger ominous current yet to come—one that could make Muslims and non-whites the least of Denmark’s perceived problems. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5329100/denmark-ghetto-policies-liberal-europe/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5329100/denmark-ghetto-policies-liberal-europe/"},"headline":"Denmark’s “Ghetto” Policies Are an Ominous Sign That Liberal Europe Is Starting to Unravel at the Seams","datePublished":"2018-07-03T13:36:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:45:20.981Z","description":"What matters to xenophobic movements is unabashed political interests, not humane social policy","url":"https://time.com/5329100/denmark-ghetto-policies-liberal-europe/","keywords":["Immigration","Denmark"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta76ad7208a82325b/69893477929fad724abf0fb3/denmark-protest-islam.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Amro Ali","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/amro-ali/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta76ad7208a82325b/69893477929fad724abf0fb3/denmark-protest-islam.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"British Pegida leaders speaks at an anti-Islam demonstration in Copenhagen","caption":"British Pegida leaders speaks at an anti-Islam demonstration in Copenhagen","creditText":"Ole Jensen—Corbis via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/immigration/","name":"Immigration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5329100/denmark-ghetto-policies-liberal-europe/","name":"Denmark’s “Ghetto” Policies Are an Ominous Sign That Liberal Europe Is Starting to Unravel at the Seams"}}]}] ```