79 MARTINDALE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE at the time—one characterized by suicide bombers and terrorists. It is easy to understand how this perception of Muslims and brown immigrants would go on to inform Danish policies and attitudes for years after. For example, a decade later in 2015, following an attack on a Danish synagogue, DPP founder Pia Kjærsgaard stated that Danish Muslims “[live] at a lower stage of civilization, with their own primitive and cruel customs” (“Denmark’s “Failed” Multiculturalism,” 2015). The next year, Martin Henriksen, also of the DPP, said in Parliament that “there is a direct correlation between refugees and terrorism” (from the Ritzau news agency, 2016, as cited in Bjerre et al., 2021). Similarly, an article published in 2019 (Hervik) includes an account of outrage in Denmark sparked by a story about women-only swimming classes in a Copenhagen suburb with a high number of immigrants. The original story was released in Berlingske Tidende, a national newspaper, with the headline, “New Danish girls take over the swimming pool—if it is emptied of boys,” and states that the aim of this program had been to encourage the participation of girls from ethnic minorities who tended to be absent from swim classes for religious reasons (Burhøi, 2017). Hervik (2019) surveys public reaction, including the following: ‘Are we living in Denmark or in an Islamic caliphate?’; ‘Segregated swimming is not Danish’; ‘Soon, pig breeding will be prohibited, since certain citizens with a specific religion cannot breathe the same air as pigs’; ‘Those who cannot behave according to Danish norms must be expelled’; and ‘Every time we give them an inch they will take a mile’. ‘This is not Denmark’; ‘This is not Saudi Arabia’ (pp. 538–539). Collectively, these opinions, ranging from elected national officials to the general public, even if not universally held, reveal much about the Danish state of mind regarding immigrants (Lindhardt, 2022). In response to the question “Is Denmark a multicultural country?” asked at a 2015 political debate, Helle Thorning-Schmidt from the Social Democratic Party said, “No, I don’t think so,” and her rival Lars Løkke Rasmussen from the liberal party Venstre replied, “No, but we are in danger of becoming one.” The use of the word “danger” exposes the fear that is often present in anti-immigration discourse in the nation—a fear not only of the Muslim but also of a hypothetical Danish society that differs from the existing idea of what Denmark is and should be. In this hypothetical society, the highly cohesive and demanding civic culture that most Danes consider a part of their identity, has fallen apart in correlation with a transition to a more “multicultural” society. The headline “New Danish girls take over the swimming pool” takes fuel from the idea of the danger of a “new” type of Dane—one who will take over, replace, and erase what is considered real and true to Denmark (Sinclair, 2015). The source of the issue: immigrants in the Danish welfare economy The drain on the Danish welfare economy caused by immigrants, as well as their low labor market participation, is often cited by politicians and decision-makers as justification for the anti-immigration sentiment in Denmark. For instance, in 2021, Prime Minister Frederiksen enacted a plan that was criticized for being anti-immigration. The plan required that some migrants work 37 hours a week in order to receive the same welfare benefits offered freely to other legal residents of the country, regardless of employment status or economic position. Frederiksen is quoted as saying, “it is basically a problem when [Denmark has] such a strong economy, where the business community demands labor, that we then have a large group, primarily women with non-Western backgrounds, who are not part of the labor market” (BBC News, 2021). To Frederiksen, the low labor market participation of immigrants is the justification for the controversial plan to make migrants work for their own welfare benefits. The claim at the center is that despite the Danish economy’s high demand for labor, specific populations do not contribute to that labor. As a welfare economy, Denmark depends on the high taxes of its employed population to carry the burden of sponsoring social benefits for the rest of the country. That burden is made worse by trends in Denmark, such as increased life expectancy and earlier retirement. Immigration is sometimes assumed the remedy to that growing burden, especially because immigrants tend to be relatively young with higher fertility rates and economic utility. However, some studies suggest that this assumption is incorrect, therefore validating and fortifying the claims and concerns of Frederiksen and other Danish people who are against immigration. Brandt and Svendsen (2019) conclude that in the presence of open borders, “welfare states in general will transform into low-welfare societies if incentives are not met by proper policies.” Similarly, Hansen et al. (2017) find that in Denmark, “immigrants from Western countries have a positive fiscal impact, while immigrants from non-Western countries have a large negative one.” They predict that non-Western residents will continue to make a net negative economic contribution by the year 2050, worsening the
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