Why does the UK want to model its immigration system on Denmark?
TThe home secretary is preparing to make a major change to the asylum system in the coming weeks, expected to follow Denmark’s example.
The country has one of the toughest immigration systems in Europe and senior officials hope learning lessons from the Scandinavian country could help reduce the growing number of people arriving in the UK on small boats.
A delegation of senior officials was sent to Copenhagen last month to learn about their intervention and draw lessons that could be applied in the UK.
Why is the government turning its attention to Denmark?
The plan to copy Denmark comes as the government steps up efforts to reduce immigration in Britain and public anger over the issue grows.
It has been a difficult few months for the government as Britain sees an increase in small boat crossings across the Channel and a migrant deported under Britain’s repatriation agreement with France re-enters the country.
At Labour’s party conference in September, Shabana Mahmood vowed to “do whatever it takes” to regain control of Britain’s borders; but the government has not yet been able to control the number of people making this dangerous crossing; The total number of people arriving in the UK by small boat this year reached 37,575 on 6 November.
The decision to look at the Danish system comes as part of a bid to reduce the “pull factors” that draw people to the UK and make it easier to remove those who do not have the right to stay.
Last year, the Danish government said it was approving a “historically” low number of asylum applications; It is said that this situation affected the interior minister.
Their approach to immigration and integration policies has successfully removed 95 percent of rejected asylum seekers, while reducing the number of asylum applications to the lowest number in 40 years in 2024.
What policies can they implement?
While the Home Office has not yet commented on specific policies, authorities are thought to be examining Denmark’s stricter rules on family reunification and considering restricting most asylum seekers from staying in the country temporarily.
Although refugees who are targets of a foreign regime will likely be granted protection in Denmark, most people granted asylum are allowed to stay in the country only temporarily.
Once a country is deemed safe, the Danish government has the power to withdraw or refuse to renew protection, even if the person has been resident for several years.
Denmark also imposes conditions such as full-time work on people seeking settlement.
Home Office officials are also said to be reviewing stricter rules on family reunification, which include a minimum age of 24 for refugees applying for their spouses to join them, to protect against forced marriages in the country.
A person granted a residence permit in Denmark must not have claimed benefits for three years and must provide a financial guarantee; both partners must also pass a Danish language test.
Denmark also takes a tough approach to integration, with a law allowing the state to demolish apartment blocks in areas where at least half of the residents are from a “non-Western” background. This law was found by a senior counsel to the EU supreme court to be discriminatory on the basis of ethnicity.
Refugees living in these public housing will not be able to benefit from family reunification.
Although the UK government is not expected to go this far in emulating Denmark’s immigration system, it is likely that the government will take some lessons from this aspect of the system as part of its bid to increase integration in Britain.
How did Labor MPs react?
Labor MPs are divided on the move; Some want ministers to move in the Danish direction in so-called red wall seats seen as vulnerable to UK Reformation challenges, while others believe the policies will alienate progressive voters and push the party too far to the right.
Left-wing Labor MP Nadia Whittome, a member of the party’s Socialist Campaign Group, called for the Danish model not to be imitated, claiming it was “far right”.
“I think it’s a moral, political and electoral dead end… I think these are the policies of the far right. I don’t think anyone wants to see a Labor government flirting with them,” she told BBC Radio 4. Today program.
Clive Lewis, meanwhile, accused the government of “adopting the logic of its opponents” in its attempt to curb immigration.
“When a progressive party adopts its opponents’ logic that immigrants are a threat, that order must come before rights, that the job of the state is to govern people, not empower them, it normalizes authoritarian right, not neutralizes it,” he said.
“The result is not a strong or just society, but an increasingly authoritarian society, a society in which the government is strong enough to punish but too weak to care.
“Secure borders, open safe routes, democratize migration, operate an effective asylum system, and invest in well-funded, universal public services/housing.”
But Gareth Snell, Labor MP for Stoke-on-Trent Centre, said any changes that would bring “fairness” to an asylum system that his constituents “distrust” were “worth exploring”.
He said it was “worth looking at the best practices from our sister parties around the world where they have managed to find practical solutions” on migration management.
