Denmark must answer today to charges before the Court of Justice of the European Union whether its policy of demolishing predominantly minority neighborhoods to encouraged integration, is tantamount to racial discrimination, reported Reuters.
In 2018, the Scandinavian country introduced the so-called ghetto package - a controversial plan to radically change some residential areas, including by demolishing social housing to disperse residents.
Known for its strict immigration policies, Denmark has had relative success in integrating migrants from non-Western countries with high levels of language proficiency and employment, but has faced pushback from those affected by the 2018 plan.
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At the heart of the case is whether Denmark's use of the term “ethnic origin”, which is often applied to people of color when defining ghetto neighborhoods, is racially discriminatory.
Denmark defines areas with more than 1,000 inhabitants as ghettos if more than 50 percent of their inhabitants are “immigrants and their descendants from non-Western countries” and when at least two other criteria for education, income, crime, and labor force participation are met.
A dozen residents of "Mølnerparken,", a residential neighborhood in the Danish capital Copenhagen, filed a lawsuit against the Danish Ministry of Social Affairs for the first time in 2020 after facing eviction, according to Reuters.
In 2023, a Danish court requested a preliminary hearing at the Court of Justice of the EU to clarify whether the term “ethnic origin” should be interpreted to include “non-Western“ origin and if so whether this is discriminatory.