\n<\/p>\n
After they fled Iran decades ago, Nasrin Bahrampour and her husband settled in a bright public housing apartment overlooking the university city of Aarhus, Denmark. They filled it with potted plants, family photographs and Persian carpets, and raised two children there.<\/p>\n
Now they are being forced to leave their home under a government program that effectively mandates integration in certain low-income neighborhoods where many \u201cnon-Western\u201d immigrants live.<\/p>\n
In practice, that means thousands of apartments will be demolished, sold to private investors or replaced with new housing catering to wealthier (and often nonimmigrant) residents, to increase the social mix.<\/p>\n
The Danish news media<\/a> has called the program \u201cthe biggest social experiment of this century.\u201d Critics say<\/a> it is \u201csocial policy with a bulldozer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The government says the plan is meant to dismantle \u201cparallel societies\u201d \u2014 which officials describe as segregated enclaves where immigrants do not participate in the wider society or learn Danish, even as they benefit from the country\u2019s generous welfare system.<\/p>\n Opponents say it is a blunt form of ethnic discrimination, and gratuitous in a country with low income inequality and where the level of deprivation in poor areas is much less pronounced than in many countries.<\/p>\n And while many other governments have experimented with solutions to fight urban deprivation and segregation, experts say that mandating a reduction in public housing largely based on the residents\u2019 ethnic background is an unusual, heavy-handed and counterproductive solution.<\/p>\n In areas like Vollsmose, a suburb of Odense where more than two-thirds of residents are from non-Western \u2014 mainly Muslim \u2014 countries, the government mandate is translating into wide-ranging demolitions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI feel by removing us, they would like to hide us because we are foreigners,\u201d said Ms. Bahrampour, 73.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n After months of searching around the city, she and her husband found a smaller apartment in a different public housing building close by. Still, Ms. Bahrampour said, being forced to leave her home was wrenching.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like I am always a refugee,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The housing plan was announced in 2018<\/a> by a conservative government, but it only started to take a tangible form more recently. It was part of a broader package<\/a> signed into law that its supporters vowed would dismantle \u201cparallel societies\u201d by 2030. Among its mandates is a requirement that young children in certain areas spend at least 25 hours a week in preschools where they would be taught the Danish language and \u201cDanish values.\u201d<\/p>\n In a country where the world-famous welfare system<\/a> was originally built to serve a tiny, homogeneous population, the housing overhaul project has had broad support across the political spectrum. That includes the governing liberal Social Democrats, who changed the term used for the affected communities \u2014 substituting \u201cparallel societies\u201d for the much-criticized word \u201cghettos.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe welfare society is fundamentally a community, which is based on a mutual trust that we all contribute,\u201d Denmark\u2019s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said in March at a summit of the country\u2019s municipalities. \u201cAll that is being seriously challenged by parallel societies.\u201d<\/p>\n The law mandates that in neighborhoods where at least half of the population is of non-Western origin or descent, and where at least two of the following characteristics exist \u2014 low income, low education, high unemployment or a high percentage of residents who have had criminal convictions \u2014 the share of social housing needs to be reduced to no more than 40 percent by 2030.<\/p>\n That means more than 4,000 public housing units will need to be emptied or torn down. At least 430 already have been demolished.<\/p>\n The decision of which housing remains public will be made by local governments and housing associations. The association operating in Vollsmose said that it bases its decisions not so much on whether a building is dilapidated, but more on its location and whether it would do well on the open market. The residents displaced are offered alternative public housing options in other buildings or neighborhoods.<\/p>\n From the beginning, the program\u2019s targeting of communities largely based on the presence of non-Western immigrants or their descendants has attracted widespread criticism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Several court cases based on the accusation that the law amounts to ethnic discrimination have reached the Court of Justice of the European Union<\/a>. Even the United Nations has weighed in, with a group of its human rights experts saying<\/a> Denmark should halt the sale of properties to private investors until a ruling is made on the program\u2019s legality.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Critics in Denmark and elsewhere have said the country would be better off focusing on countering discrimination against minority communities \u2014 chiefly its Muslim population \u2014 if the goal is to get more people integrated into Danish society. They say the law that created the housing program actually makes the discrimination worse by characterizing those with immigrant backgrounds as a societal problem to be solved.<\/p>\n They also argue that ethnic enclaves have historically served as landing points for new immigrants in many countries, places where they could get a foothold before subsequent generations assimilated.<\/p>\n