When Rokhaia Naassan gives birth in the coming days, she and her baby boy will enter a new category in the eyes of Danish law. Because she lives in a low-income immigrant neighborhood described by the government as a “ghetto,” Rokhaia will be what the Danish newspapers call a “ghetto parent” and he will be a “ghetto child.”
Starting at the age of 1, “ghetto children” must be separated from their families for at least 25 hours a week, not including nap time, for mandatory instruction in “Danish values,” including the traditions of Christmas and Easter, and Danish language. Noncompliance could result in a stoppage of welfare payments. Other Danish citizens are free to choose whether to enroll children in preschool up to the age of six.
Denmark’s government is introducing a new set of laws to regulate life in 25 low-income and heavily Muslim enclaves, saying that if families there do not willingly merge into the country’s mainstream, they should be compelled.
One measure under consideration would allow courts to double the punishment
for certain crimes if they are committed in one of the 25 neighborhoods
classified as ghettos, based on residents’ income, employment status,
education levels, number of criminal convictions and “non-Western
background.” Another would allow local authorities to increase their monitoring and
surveillance of “ghetto” families.Some proposals have been rejected as too radical, like one from the far-right Danish People’s Party
that would confine “ghetto children” to their homes after 8 p.m.
(Challenged on how this would be enforced, Martin Henriksen, the
chairman of Parliament’s integration committee, suggested in earnest
that young people in these areas could be fitted with electronic ankle bracelets.)
1 July 2018
QueerAnarchism 