Introduction
Communities are experienced and defined in multifaceted ways. Thus, it often becomes difficult to draw a line between bystanders and participants; one must consider who is included and who makes these definitions. The definition of community allows for an arbitrary divide between humans, merely furthering the challenges of segregation and social exclusion. The challenges of segregation are ever-present, whether a definition is arbitrary or not, one must also recognize that there are specific characteristics individuals do not share and thus segregate them, intrinsically or extrinsically. Later in this report, my recommendations touch upon how bystanders may be able to aid the participants of communities when exploring the challenges they experience. Sharing a similar hurt or having the comfort of similar beliefs and lifestyles, strengthens a community through a sense of belonging. This report aims to highlight how individuals beyond just one community can contribute to this too.
The following report considers the communities experiencing social exclusion due to their ethnic backgrounds in Copenhagen, Denmark. However, suppose one defines a community as a group of people with common characteristics, such as ethnicity. In that case, we consider a much larger community beyond Copenhagen. The notion of community continues to evolve and develop as we continue to globalize. If communities are not merely based on geographic location but rather particular characteristics, the knowledge of your and my community is one that we should share. Communities worldwide and within a nation can learn from one another and understand their community is larger, more interconnected, than one may think.
My Positionality
I was born 20 minutes outside of Copenhagen and spent the next 18 years in schools in and around Copenhagen. Growing up in Denmark, I became familiar with national political debates and disputes. Though I never truly experienced nor actualized the discourse surrounding the disputes on immigration, despite attending an international school for most of my education. My evident oblivion to the communities, affected by these disputes and the challenges, is troublesome. The Copenhagen I have grown up in is different from the Copenhagen I have discovered throughout my research for this report. The lack of open dialogue surrounding diversity and inclusion in my everyday life and my years in education is a significant driver in my recommendations for these challenges, outlined later in the report.
Before suggesting recommendations to the community, it is vital to acknowledge that you, the community experiencing these challenges, are the experts. As a scholar my role is to shed light on these implications, outline and suggest a framework for implementation, and highlight how similar communities have utilized this to their benefit.
The Community and Ghetto Plan
Denmark has long been a very closed nation in hopes of promoting their national values. Thus, with increasing immigration and refugees entering the country, Denmark has struggled with proper integration strategies, leading ethnic minorities in Denmark to be socially and geographically excluded.
On January 1st, 2018, the former right-winged Prime Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, held the annual New Year’s speech, where the plan for removing all ‘ghettos’ by 2030 was announced (BT, 2018). The contentious and evolving social policy known as the “Ghetto Plan” was introduced to address socioeconomic disparity issues.
Mjølnerparken is a housing complex located in Northwest Copenhagen and has been categorized by the government as a “hard ghetto”. With the Ghetto Plan, 60% of the residences are to be sold, torn down or redeveloped by 2030, with no plan to aid the relocation of the residents (Politiken, 2023). Residents of Mjølnerparken, you will be the focus of this report, nevertheless I will still acknowledge the broader communities around Denmark that, too, are faced with the regulations set by the Ghetto Plan.
The language used in politics is noteworthy. Referring to areas of higher ethnic-minority populations as ghettos shift the political debate from social inclusion considerations to mere racial and ethnic dimensions and prejudices. As of 2021, this plan is now referred to as the Parallel Society Policy (Paolino, 2022). The removal of “parallel societies” shifts the discourse to the debates of social inclusion, integration, and the removal of segregated communities. Nevertheless, as we will discover through this report, is the rebranding of this plan merely a coverup?
This policy aims to address the challenges faced by the specific communities living in these ghettos, particularly those with a significant non-Western immigrant population. According to Danmarks Statistik, this refers to anyone from a country outside of the EU and North America (2019). However, the definition continues with additional exceptions of Iceland, Australia, Switzerland and many more, creating a sense of apprehension when considering who is included in these “non-Western” communities in the eyes of Danish politicians. Migration researcher Garbi Schmidt underlines that the Ghetto Plan evidently sees immigration as the main issue and cause of segregation in Denmark, once again connotating ghettos to a particular race and ethnicity (Paolino, 2022 and Schmidt, 2022).
These areas, labelled as ghettos, are often criticized for a perceived lack of integration and participation in Danish society, with concerns raised about language proficiency, engagement with the labour market, and adherence to Danish norms and values (Paolino, 2022). This in and of itself is a significant challenge the community is currently facing and will be further discussed later in the report. One driving concern behind this policy is the notion of the “great replacement”, a far-right fear which posits the replacement of the native population by immigrants and the erosion of Danish values (Paolino, 2022). Policymakers aim to prevent this outcome, as well as the furthering of minority-majority communities in Copenhagen, which are home to sizeable proportions of people from many ethnic groups, through this Ghetto Plan (Catney, 2022). The emphasis on preserving national values, consequently, leads to the displacement of 60% of the current ghetto classified areas, underlining clear challenges, and worries for your community (Paolino, 2022).
Considering these developments, the Ghetto Plan has significant implications for the broader immigrant community of Denmark. The target of the Ghetto Plan is to ensure residents with non-Western backgrounds do not exceed 40% of the population in residential areas by 2030; introducing further challenges and questions surrounding housing security for these residents who risk their homes being torn down (Versi, 2020). The criteria for an area to be classified as a ghetto include a majority non-Western population and whether the area has at least two of the following: low income, high crime, high unemployment, or low levels of education (Versi, 2020).
The policy, however, has not been without controversy. Internationally, it has been criticized for its perceived discriminatory and racially biased nature, leading many to label it as both racist and discriminatory. The implementation of such measures has ignited debate and divisions within Danish society.
Denmark in the context of diversity
As it is, the challenges with the Ghetto Plan are not uncommon nor found only in one area of the world. The discourse surrounding segregation and social exclusion in Copenhagen is one of many worldwide. As mentioned earlier, this report attempts to highlight how large and widespread your community truly is, drawing in on examples from scholars and other nations where these challenges exist or have been explored.
Denmark’s population has, for a long time, been, and continues to be, extremely homogenous. It was only in the 1960s, when Denmark was facing industrial labour shortages, that Denmark slowly began opening its borders to Turkish, Pakistani, and Yugoslavian citizens (Lewinter et al., 1996 and Schmidt, 2021). Following this, in the 1970s, families of the labour migrants followed and moved to Denmark too. After the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis, the political discourse surrounding refugees, non-EU and non-Western immigrants became one of hostility, with emphasis on the fear of losing Danish values. With the slow influx of immigration since the 1960s, one may question the considerations, or lack thereof, of integration strategies put forward by the government, and how this consequently affects your community today.
The concept of a “ghetto”, although existing in Europe and North Africa, was a foreign phenomenon in Denmark before the 1900s (Schmidt, 2022). Between the 1850s and 1960s, Danish newspapers reported on the rise of ghettos in larger metropolitan cities around Europe, often described and portrayed as poor and dirty areas (Schmidt, 2022). This narrative was furthered amongst other European newspapers, dehumanizing the residents living in these areas, leading to numerous xenophobic and racist uproars. The 100 years leading up to workers’ immigration to Denmark allowed the media to fuel the stigma and negative perceptions of ghettos. The rise of ghettos in urban areas of Denmark became more apparent in the late 1960s, linking ghettos to immigrants (Schmidt, 2022). Social housing was, and continues to be, one of the rare affordable accommodations in Copenhagen, causing the rise of Turkish and Pakistani guest workers residing there. The deteriorating conditions of the social housing merely furthered the narrative outlined in the decades prior.
A vital socio-political shift occurred near the 1980s when debating Danish immigration policies. Initially, the discourse revolved around the social inequalities for immigrants, yet a noticeable shift highlighted a link between immigration, ghettos, and religious practices, specifically those within Islam (Yilmaz, 2016, p. 84). The following sections will focus on the social challenges that followed the communities living in these areas.
Within the past 60 years, only 5% of the Danish population originate outside the EU (European Commission, 2023). This minimal development of diversity is salient. The brief introduction to the history of Danish immigration and how the media has presented these housing areas sets the context for the remainder of the report.
The challenges faced
Denmark’s policies continue to indicate the regression of migrant integration performance in the past years (MIPEX, 2020). The challenges faced by the communities living in the ghettos are multitudinous, yet all interlinked. It is worth noting that simply labelling and categorizing an area’s residents based on their ethnic backgrounds is disadvantageous to the communities’ external opinion and perception. With the additional policies put in place in recent years, this only introduces further challenges to the community.
Segregation
A clear challenge experienced, even before the introduction of the Ghetto Plan in 2018, is segregation. Despite the intention of the Ghetto Plan being to integrate ethnic minorities and prevent parallel societies from forming, it seems the opposite has occurred. A resident of Mjølnerparken shared her thoughts, “I don’t feel this law makes us feel included – it’s the opposite. You’re saying to kids from a young age that they are not good enough, that they have to do extra to be accepted by society” (Versi, 2020). The Ghetto Plan is not integrating communities; rather, it is further exacerbating the segregation that already exists, further labelling the minority communities as trouble.
Traditionally, we have understood ‘citizenship’ as the status of belonging to a country. Yet, it has long taken a different form and meaning in the urban context. Challenges arise when questioning the citizenship of your community in Mjølnerparken. Some residents in Mjølnerparken are ethnically Danish; others are second or third-generation immigrants who have lived in Denmark their whole lives. Nevertheless, these residents are classified as non-Western. In urban study literature, scholars think of citizenship beyond the formality of the state and its citizens, rather, they challenge the formality and open the discussion of citizens belonging to an informal community. One cannot hold a legal membership to something as personal and arbitrary as an individual’s lifestyle choice (Isin et al., 2008, p. 1). Still, somehow, Danish politics seem to disregard whether you have only lived in Denmark. Instead, it is the informal lifestyle “citizenship” which worries the politicians, only creating a further segregation and discourse of “them” vs “us”.
Displacement
A direct impact the Ghetto Plan is having on the community is the blatant eviction. Not only is this a housing crisis for residents of these ghettos, but the correlation between ethnicity socioeconomic and political challenges are ever present.
A clear issue that follows is the lack of understanding and awareness of how selective demolition is significantly altering neighbourhoods and continuously disproportionately displacing minority populations (Lukes et al., 2019, p. 3200). These discriminatory processes are evidently systemic yet covered in bureaucratic legislation, making it nearly impossible to accurately evidence and challenge (Lukes et al., 2019, p. 3201). The contradictions of strict legislation and implementation and the reality of urban life highlight how vital your voice is here (Benit-Gbaffou and Oldfield, 2011, p. 447). Change must come from you, as it is evident that current integration schemes are only worsening the challenges.
Residents of Mjølnerparken, you have expressed your concerns and worries, highlighting how the selling of these residential homes does not necessarily correlate to forced eviction, but consequently, as rent increases, families will be left with no other option. “It’s the people that live in those buildings who are struggling”, not the buildings that are being torn down or sold, Samiah Qasim emphasizes (Versi, 2020). Once more, merely underlining the social challenges buried within the discourse of housing redevelopments to remove the stigma souring these deprived areas.
Employment Opportunities
A considerable debate is that there are high levels of unemployment in Vollsmose, another classified ghetto in Odense, a fellow community. This is not due to a lack of attempts from the residents. Youth activist, Ibrahim El-Hassan, is an active member of Almend Modstand, a movement against housing discrimination and forced eviction. El-Hassan highlights the need for a reorganization of the job market, as he has experienced the implications that follow employment due to Arabic surnames (Aljazeera, 2021). Regrettably, this is not a new challenge. The feminist scholar Sara Ahmed explains how her surname “slows her down”, adding challenges to her everyday life that might not be experienced by a white woman (Ahmed, 2007, p. 162). We become strangers in our homes when something like our name segregates us from the rest. Ahmed highlights how “having the ‘right’ passport makes no difference if you have the wrong body or name”, furthering the ideas and questions surrounding citizenship once more (Ahmed, 2007, p. 162). The struggle to find higher-paying jobs limits residents to where they can afford to live, furthering the narrative that these areas are impoverished and dangerous communities. “If they really want minority Danes, I mean us from ethnic backgrounds other than Danish, to integrate more into the Danish society, then it’s necessary to include us and not push us away, alienate us and stigmatize us and make us into a problem” El-Hassan shared (Aljazeera, 2021).
Forced inclusion
Though integration into Danish society is easier said than done, implications arise when this integration is forced and written by Danish politics rather than engaging with the communities at risk of social exclusion. The government have enforced a regulation stating children at the age of 1 must enrol in day-care at least 25 hours a week to teach the Danish language and values (Ringgard, 2018). However, the children are only at further risk of being stigmatized and segregated. When politicians categorize communities and individuals as residents needing special treatment, there is a risk that this attitude is projected onto the teachers and, thus, to the children, further alienating the children from society (Ringgard, 2018). Furthermore, the issue of selective discrimination is once more presented. “If I moved over to the other side of the road, I would not be having any of these problems”, Qasim explains, as this regulation solely relates to residents of the classified ghettos in Denmark (Versi, 2020). The attempt from the Danish government to integrate children into Danish society continues to present further challenges to you and your sense of belonging.
Community recommendations
It is evident the challenges that your community faces are complex, interlinked, and continuously growing. However, highlighting the challenges and understanding how these are arising contextualizes the need for community-driven action and that these initiatives are vital to increasing social inclusion.
It is worth noting, once more, my positionality within this social conflict. I have been a part of a very homogenous community, one that rarely interacts with residents outside of our bubble, unaware of what was occurring just 20 minutes away. The following recommendations are based on successes in other similar communities to those of the residents in Mjølnerparken. Nevertheless, linking back to my initial discussion on community, the bystander and participant begin to interact once again here. As a bystander of the Ghetto Plan and your community, which have been directly affected, I have the responsibility to be a participant in the action against social exclusion. Below, I outline two main recommendations. The first is a more theoretical conversation that must be had nationally to destigmatize your community by others. The second recommendation takes inspiration from Malmö, where communities have experienced similar exclusion. This recommendation is a more concrete plan for action that I hope you may consider.
1. Destigmatizing the conversation
Had I been introduced to the challenges that your community was facing in school, and been given initiatives and actions I could take, I, and many in my community, would have jumped at the opportunity to help. Throughout this report, I have significantly highlighted how it is the politicians and the government who have continued this stigmatization and narrative of the residents of the categorized ghettos. Thus, it is up to communities and society to take back the narrative and rewrite it.
There is a clear need to understand how individual experiences differ in order to live in a racially just society. We must acknowledge that one community’s privileges often come at the expense of others’ marginalization (Finney et al., 2023, p. 5). Including other communities in this discussion helps the excluded communities to be seen and acknowledged. From here, we must take further action to socially include them in activities. Once we understand the need for, and implement, inclusive dialogue, we begin to tackle the challenges of employment, thus prejudice and further displacement.
However, if inclusion is forced, exclusion persists. The policies and challenges of forced day-care by the Ghetto Plan highlight this. Integration must be sought by all communities involved. According to the scholar Ceri Peach (1996), the concept of segregation has often been vilified. Still, Peach argues that it is not uniformly negative and can serve as a method for accommodating differences within a society. Peach recognizes the value of allowing these ethnic communities to exist while integrating them into the broader environment (1996, p. 380). In essence, Peach’s perspective highlights the delicate balance needed between preserving cultural identity and fostering social inclusion. Ultimately, he argues, the choice should be left to the individual or the community rather than imposing a uniform policy. Through the interviews with the residents of Mjølnerparken, it is evident that social inclusion is wanted and needed. Yet, we must still allow other lifestyles and traditions to exist within the larger society.
2. A plan for action
In the recent decade, Malmö has dramatically struggled with the integration of migrants and refugees following the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis especially. To lessen tensions between communities and allow for a socially integrated society, Malmö introduced a primary school football club against racism, currently engaging with 30 schools (Malmö FF, 2023). In association with the local Swedish UNESCO Collaboration, this program allows for children of diverse ethnicities to come together to play football. Racism and prejudice are not intrinsic values; this is something we are taught and fed to believe. Teaching children from a young age that their friends and teammates do not necessarily speak or look a certain way, yet you are all able to get along and play a fun game, diverts the negative narrative of immigration and ethnic groups that has been portrayed for decades. Initiatives, such as Malmö FF’s, would benefit both the communities categorized as ghettos and help other communities, such as my own, to remove the stigma surrounding immigration in Scandinavia.
As mentioned, I attended Copenhagen International School (CIS) for most of my education. Yet, the challenges and communities I have been introduced to through this report are new to me. International schools would be a beneficial community to begin engaging with for your community, as diversity is not as foreign to these students as it might be for public Danish schools. If the children in Mjølnerparken and the children at CIS can come together weekly for a friendly game of soccer, then integration and inclusion become a choice that emphasizes leisure and enjoyment. This may seem like a small action; however, soccer has notoriously put internal political disputes aside, to create an atmosphere of national appreciation and camaraderie. Not only would this benefit the children and future generations of Denmark, it would also allow for parents to meet. As discussed earlier, prejudice is taught, and changing this at an early age stops the continuous cycle of hostility. That said, it is not too late for parents, the soccer plan allows parents, too, to rethink their reservations.
At heart, social integration is only possible if there is an understanding of the challenges beyond just your community. Initiatives for inclusion and destigmatisation can begin only when outside communities understand and acknowledge the social exclusion that exists.
References
Ahmed, S. (2007). ‘A phenomenology of whiteness’, Feminist Theory, 8(2), 149-168.
Aljazeera (2021). Am I Danish?: Ibrahim vs the Ghetto Laws | Witness Documentary. (online) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB6lsEA6chs (Accessed 26 October 2023).
B.T. (2018) Her kan du læse hele Lars Lække Rasmussens nytårstale. Available at: https://www.bt.dk/politik/her-kan-du-laese-hele-lars-loekke-rasmussens-nytaarstale (Accessed: 26 October 2023).
Benit-Gbaffou, C., & Oldfield, S. (2011) ‘Accessing the State: Everyday Practices and Politics in Cities of the South’, Journal of Asian and African Studies, 46 (5), 445-452.
Catney, G. et al. (2022) ‘Ethnic diversification and neighbourhood mixing: A rapid response analysis of the 2021 Census of England and Wales’, The Geographical Journal, 189 (1), 63-77.
Danmarks Statistik (2019) Defor inddeler vi verden i vestlige og ikke-vestlige lande. Available at: https://www.dst.dk/da/Statistik/nyheder-analyser-publ/rigsstat-klumme/2019/2019-07-11-derfor-inddeler-vi-verden-i-vestlige-og-ikke-vestlige-lande (Accessed: 26 October 2023).
European Commission (2023) Governance of migrant integration in Denmark. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/country-governance/governance-migrant-integration-denmark_en#:~:text=The%201960s%20industrial%20labour%20shortages,Asia%2C%20followed%20in%20the%201970s (Accessed: 26 October 2023).
Finney, N. et al (2023) ‘Introduction: the need for Evidence for Equality’. In Racism and Ethnic Inequality in a Time of Crisis. Bristol: Policy Press, pp 1-29.
Isin, E.F. (2008) ‘Theorizing acts of citizenship’, Acts of Citizenship, 11(6), 1-12.
Lewinter, M-, Kesmez, S.S., Gezgin, K. (1996) ‘The social situation of elderly Turkish immigrants in Copenhagen, Denmark’ J Cross Cult Gerontol, 11(2), 115-129.
Lukes, S., N. Noronha and N. Finney (2019) ‘Slippery discrimination: a review of the drivers of migrant and minority housing disadvantage’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(17), 3188-3206.
Malmo FF (2023) Grundskole-Fotboll mot rasismer. Available at: https://www.mff.se/grundskolefotboll-mot-rasismer/ (Accessed 26 October 2023).
MIPEX (2020) Migrant Integration Policy Index. Available at: https://www.mipex.eu/denmark (Accessed: 26 October 2023).
Paolino, J. (2022) Forget parallel societies: Is the ghetto plan stuck in a parallel universe? Available at: https://cphpost.dk/2022-10-22/news/forget-parallel-societies-is-the-ghetto-plan-stuck-in-a-parallel-universe/#:~:text=The%20years%2Dold%20ghetto%20plan,their%20racial%20and%20ethnic%20composition (Accessed 26 October 2023).
Peach, C. (1996) ‘Good segregation, bad segregation’, Planning Perspectives, 11(4), 379-398.
Politiken (2023) Slaget om Mjølnerparken er i fuld gang. Available at: https://politiken.dk/indland/art9309331/Slaget-om-Mjølnerparken-er-i-fuld-gang (Accessed 26 October 2023).
Ringgard, A. (2018) Forskere: Vuggestue-tvang i ‘ghettoer’ er et risikabelt eksperiment. Available at: https://videnskab.dk/kultur-samfund/forskere-vuggestue-tvang-i-ghettoer-er-et-risikabelt-eksperiment/ (Accessed 26 October 2023).
Schmidt, G. (2021) Den første ghetto. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.
Schmidt, G. (2022) ‘What Is in a Word? An Exploration of Concept of ‘the Ghetto’ in Danish Media and Politics 1850–2018’ Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 12(3), 310–325.
Versi, J. (2020) Denmark’s ‘ghetto plan’ and the communities it targets. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2020/1/15/denmarks-ghetto-plan-and-the-communities-it-targets (Accessed 26 October 2023).
Yilmaz, F. (2016) How the Workers Became Muslims: Immigration, Culture, and Hegemonic Transformation in Europe. eBook: University of Michigan Press.