Seven families from Helsingor, a coastal city north of Copenhagen, are facing their former landlord in Denmark’s Supreme Court. In a two-day hearing that began on Friday, they are arguing they were forced from their homes because of where they, or their parents, come from. Their leases were terminated in 2022 under a 2018 law, once known as the “ghetto law”, which targets social housing estates where more than half of residents are classed as “non-Western”.
The government claims the law is aimed at integration. But rights groups have for years fought against the measures, saying they are discriminatory. So what does “non-Western” mean, and could the courts bring the law down?
Here’s what you need to know: It is a statistical label that covers most of the world. In 2020, the UN Human Rights Office said: “Statistics Denmark, under the Danish Ministry for Economic and Interior Affairs, defines ‘non-Western’ as any country outside the EU, with the exceptions of Andorra, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, San Marino, Switzerland, the USA, and the Vatican State. The label also covers descendants: anyone born in Denmark if neither parent is a Danish citizen born in the country.
That means a Danish citizen born and raised in Copenhagen can still be “non-Western”. Every December 1, the government names “parallel societies”. These are social housing areas of at least 1,000 people where more than 50 percent are “non-Western” immigrants and descendants.
An area must also meet two of four criteria on unemployment, crime, education, and income. Areas on the list for five years become “transformation areas”, which the government used to call “hard ghettos”. They must cut public family housing to 40 percent by 2030 through sales, demolition or conversion.
An estate with the same social problems but fewer “non-Western” residents faces no such obligation. The government says the goal is integration. The law was part of a plan called “One Denmark without Parallel Societies: No Ghettos in 2030”.
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