Why is Denmark separating ‘Western’ and ‘non-Western’ citizens?

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. “It’s about whether the criteria regarding the tenants’ origin is neutral or not,” Eddie Khawaja, the families’ lawyer, told the news agency AFP.

“The effect is that ‘non-Western’ disproportionately means Denmark’s non-white, non-European ethnic populations,” it stated. The label also covers descendants: anyone born in Denmark if neither parent is a Danish citizen born in the country.