76 PERSPECTIVES ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS | VOL 41 | 2023 Immigrants in Denmark: Past, present, and future Bonor Ayambem Denmark has a reputation for being a liberal and tolerant country in regard to its treatment of certain marginalized groups. However, a close study of social and political documentation reveals that this treatment has not historically applied to immigrants and people of color, in particular black and brown Muslim immigrants. This article performs such a study and investigates claims of Denmark’s egalitarianism through an analysis of its history and economy. Introduction Owing to its extensive tax-financed welfare programs as well as its progressive positions on gender and wealth equality, Denmark is widely considered one of the most egalitarian countries in the world across several metrics. In 2021, Denmark was the most gender equal country according to the Gender Inequality Index (Statista, 2022); and, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Denmark scores among the lowest in income inequality and relative poverty rates globally (OECD, 2021). Despite this commitment to equality, tolerance, and social security for all people, Denmark still harbors some prejudice and biases against immigrants, in particular those from non-Western backgrounds. In her article discussing cultural racism in Denmark, Karen Wren (2001) writes that a fundamental shift in Denmark during the early 1980s has led it to be potentially one of the most racist countries in Europe. This article attempts to organize and make sense of a complicated history of anti-immigration and anti-multiculturalism that is paradoxical to the liberal and tolerant Danish state. One goal of the discussion that follows is to locate the source, context, and reasoning of these sentiments and further investigate them through political, cultural, and economic lenses. Additionally, in examining economic anti-immigration arguments, this article takes the arguments against immigration and claims of its net harm to the Danish welfare economy into serious account. These arguments notwithstanding, this article seeks to provide alternative thought and offer opportunities for further research in order to imagine a future that integrates immigrants into Danish economy and society in a way that provides net positive outcomes for the immigrants themselves and the Danish state as a whole. Background: immigrant statistics in Denmark As can be seen in Figure 1, Denmark has seen a significant increase in immigration since around 1980. The population of native Danes has remained almost constant at 5 million since then, with the majority of the growth in total population to 5.9 million coming from immigration as of 2023 (Ministry for Economic Affairs…, 2018). In 1990, immigrants made up 4.58% of the total population, a percentage that has grown steadily since, reaching 15.4% in 2023 (Statistics Denmark, 2022). Although religious demographic data are difficult to attain in Denmark, Islam is recorded as the second largest religion in Denmark, with Muslims making up approximately 4.4% (256,000) of the population as of 2020, contrasted with 0.6% (30,000) in 1980 (Jacobsen, 2018). In its 2010 Report on International Religious Freedom, the US Department of State attributes this growth to a significant number of Danish immigrants coming from countries with high Muslim populations, such as Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. Muslims, constituting approximately 40% of the total immigrants, are perceived to be incompatible with Danish democratic values, making them the target of negative public attitudes in Denmark and political immigration debates. This incompatibility can be observed in the disparity between treatments of Syrian versus Ukrainian refugees. Although similar numbers of refugees have been recorded as coming from both Syria and Ukraine, it has been noted by news outlets and scholars and observed in general public discourse that the treatment of white European Ukrainian refugees, who have been offered residency permits, differs significantly from that of Muslim Syrian refugees, who were urged to leave Denmark while the Syrian civil war was ongoing. The head of Refugees Wel-
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