Denmark is set to appear before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) today as it gets set to hear if its controversial “ghetto package” is deemed to be legal.
The policy, introduced in 2018, seeks to encourage integration by migrants by radically altering certain residential zones, including tearing down social housing units to disperse residents.
Denmark defines areas with over 1,000 residents as ghettos if more than 50 percent are “immigrants and their descendants from non-Western countries”, and where at least two other criteria on education, income, crime, and workforce participation are met.
On the whole, Denmark has had a positive experience with the integration of immigrants, with high language proficiency and employment rates.
The policy has been labelled as “racially derogatory” due to its use of the term “ethnic origin”, a term often used to describe people of colour.
It has led to more than a dozen people from Mjolnerparken, an affected residential area in Copenhagen, where houses were set to be sold, to file a case against Denmark’s ministry of social affairs in 2020.
Together with the Danish Institute for Human Rights and two UN-appointed human rights experts, the residents seek a ruling from the CJEU on the correct interpretation of the EU’s Race Equality Directive, including in relation to the term “non-Western” background.
In 2023, a Danish court requested a preliminary ECJ hearing to determine whether the term “ethnic origin” should be interpreted as including “non-Western” background and, if so, whether this was discriminatory.
Eddie Khawaja, a lawyer for the residents, said the plaintiffs felt stigmatised.
He said: “They feel offended by the fact that in everyday speech, in legislation, in all the political proposals that surround this, they have been referred to as residents of ghetto areas.”
Susheela Math, Senior Managing Litigation Officer at the Open Society Justice Initiative, said: “It’s been a long journey for the many Danish families and individuals who have been fighting for years for their fundamental right to racial equality to be respected.
“Too many have already lost their homes and close-knit, diverse communities. But we now look forward to the opportunity for the Court of Justice of the European Union to reaffirm that equality remains part of the bedrock of the region.”
A ruling from the CJEU could be relevant not just in Denmark but across Europe where trends of neighbourhood-based discrimination have been growing.
Once the ECJ has reached a conclusion, the case will return to the Danish court, which will decide how to apply the ruling.
