NEWSWEEK / WASHINGTON POST: "The Achilles' heel of the welfare state" read a recent headline in a Danish newspaper, alluding to the economic toll immigration is taking on the country.
"...Unrestricted immigration is a death threat against our welfare," echoed Pia Kjærsgaard, leader of the right wing party Dansk Folkeparti (Danish People's Party), defending her fight for a selective approach to immigration.
The comments come at a time when Denmark has had to accept new rulings by the EU that ease its own relatively strict immigration policies. The conclusion that non-EU citizens no longer need to be legal residents in an EU country to be allowed family reunification in another EU country is against Denmark's own law. But as Denmark has to follow common policy laws on immigration regardless of national laws, the government has had little choice but to concede to the ruling.
Pia Kjærsgaard calls the EU a "monster" while other angry voices in Parliament, although not as allegorical, have joined in on an intense debate about how best to cover up the loopholes now present in the country's immigration law.
Why are politicians so skeptical of letting anyone outside of the EU become a Danish citizen?
Calculations by the Danish National Bank may give an answer. Their predictions indicate that the government would have to save nearly $1.6 billion (or raise taxes equivalently) in order to balance the costs of immigrants from under-developed countries living in Denmark. These immigrants tend to have a hard time finding jobs, but are nevertheless automatically included in the welfare state. Benefiting from the generous public services without paying back in the form of taxes would therefore lead to a significant deficit of government spending. >>> By Annie Magnus | October 29, 2008
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