The conservative Danish government was heavily criticized for its immigration reform back in 2002. The cause for criticism: After having married Danish citizens foreigners were not allowed to enter Denmark until the age of 24. This was done to prevent immigrant parents from forcing their daughters to marry someone from their home country at an early age and without getting any education, a tradition that made integration very difficult. Critics said this violated fundamental rights of immigrants.
According to sociologist Mehmet Necef from the University of Southern Denmark, himself an immigrant the positive results are obvious: A growing a number of immigrant women are taking control of their own lives, and thereby breaking with oppressive family traditions.
Official statistics say that 25 out of 100 immigrants and descendants are now marrying Danes. In 2001 the figure was 16 out of 100, and for women the trend is even stronger. Every third immigrant woman now marries a Dane. In 2001 62.7% of immigrants from non-Western countries married someone from outside Denmark. Last year the figure was just 37.8%.
Says Mehmet Necef to the newspaper Politiken:
”The law has created a world of opportunities for women. It’s now legitimate to postpone marriage, it’s legitimate to get outside home and therefore the family as lost control over these young women.”
He adds: ”The most interesting thing about the figures is the growing number of marriages between immigrant women and Danes. You can’t help but being optimistic. Love is the best way to integrate [immigrants].”
Politiken adds that it’s especially Iranians and people from the former Yugoslavia that marry Danes, while citizens of Turkish and Pakistani background are less inclined to choose a Dane for marriage. Iraqis and Lebanese are somewhere in the middle.
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2 Comments
1. al v:if only the usa and other countries would follow the way the Danish do it.
Jun 19, 2007 - 10:24 pm 2. Mark William Paules:thanks for being a pjm blogger
Dear Sir,
You are a welcome addition to PJM. I look forward to your insights based on a European perspective. I find the statistics you quote about the increasing preference of immigrant women to take a Danish husband to be an expectation that will soon be the norm. Many years ago I met a Swedish national who worked with refugees from Chile bound for Sweden after the fall of Allende. She stated that the Chilean women were adjusting quite well in the liberal environment afforded by Sweden, but the Chilean men were having a hard time making the adjustment. I’ll state the obvious: Where women have full rights as citizens, they tend to break free of patriarchial authority and domination. The flip side to the coin is that native (Scandinavian and otherwise) women tend to have a hard time with husbands who still demand the patriarchal authority vested in the old culture. The two mindsets are not compatible. Immigrant men must change to meet the European standard for human rights regarding women, and not vice-versa. Oddly, the United States never gets credit from the the world community for our ability to integrate all people, regardless of race, gender or religion into one monolithic culture. The United States is the blend to which the world should aspire. What other nation can put an army into ancient Mesopotamia of people from both genders and every race and religion? And we’ll do it with success as long as the political will exists to carry out the mission to victory. Europe isn’t lost yet despite the demographics. Culture is more important than race. Europe is beginning to wake up to the existential battle between civilization and barbarism. Two-thousand, five-hundred years of Western Civilization can’t be all wrong when the product is modernity. It’s worth fighting for. It’s time the Europeans picked up the banner and entered the fray.
Jun 20, 2007 - 4:03 am