26.11.2014 Illegal black lists of immigrant groups in Denmark

The Local Denmark (2014) reports on the existence of illegal black lists in various cities in Denmark. The local government of these cities have set different immigrant groups, such as the Chechens or the Rroma, on a list of undesirable immigrant groups. The illegal practice was revealed by the Danish newspaper Berlingske: “Some municipalities tell the Danish Immigration Service (Udlændingestyrelsen) not to send them refugees from certain countries, Berlingske newspaper revealed. […] Another unwanted group is the Roma. Sønderborg Council told Immigration Service that it “wants to put an end to the visits of Roma people from former Yugoslavia who come on humanitarian grounds”. Danish municipalities provide requests and recommendations to Immigration Service each year as a way to build upon previous successes with certain groups, but many of the municipalities also use the annual exercise as an opportunity to tell the national authorities which refugees they do not want. This would appear to be in violation of the nation’s immigration laws which state that no distinctions can be made based on nationality when helping those in need.” However, Rroma are not a national group, but a transnational, ethnic minority, with a centuries-old history of exclusion and persecution. The deliberate exclusion of a specific group of persons violates the anti-discrimination legislation. Rroma are not a homogeneous mass, but are composed of a variety of individuals, with diverse experiences. With the expansion of the European free movement of persons to Romania and Bulgaria, various western European countries warned of a mass immigration of poor Rroma. However, these forecasts build not on critical analysis, but on politicized, polemical estimates of migration: Rroma are not mass of uneducated poor, but belong to all strata of society and professional groups.