Danish authorities are so concerned about immigrants that they are willing to pay for their return home
“In practice, the program is aimed at citizens of ‘non-Western’ countries who struggle to adapt to life in Danish society and for whom a fairly substantial compensation amount could be a motive to return home,” commented Peter Skaarup, deputy head of the DF party.
According to the government's plans, from the new year, 11,000 Danish kroner ($2,200) will be paid to returning immigrants before they leave Denmark. After their residence permits in Denmark are revoked, they will be paid an additional 89,000 kroner. This means that the total amount each immigrant leaving Denmark will receive is $20,100.
The Danish government will allocate $4.1 million to city authorities handling immigrant integration in the country, to help them ‘motivate’ immigrants to return to their home countries. According to the Danish Ministry of the Interior, since the introduction of compensation for repatriation in 1997, 2,500 migrants have voluntarily left the country, mainly from the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Somalia, and Turkey. Now the authorities hope that with the increased amount, the number of returnees will rise significantly.
As reported by the Copenhagen Post, the country’s opposition parties ‘were shocked by the news, which sends a clear signal to foreigners that Denmark would prefer them to leave its borders’.
‘Restrictions on immigrants in Denmark in recent years are clearly producing positive results. We have recognized that the number of immigrants coming to our country matters,’ Danish Minister for Refugees, Immigration and Integration Rikke Hvilshøj told Expert. ‘There is a relationship between the number of immigrants we can accept in the country and the number we can integrate into Danish society.
‘Unfortunately, unemployment and low levels of education remain a significant problem for immigrants from outside the EU. Only 46% of adult immigrants are employed, while for Danes that figure is 73%. 60% of immigrant children do not finish school. This complicates the integration process and their acceptance of Danish values.’
Immigrants account for 9.5% of Denmark's population, which totals 5.5 million people. 6.5% of the country's population are immigrants from outside the EU, mainly from the Middle East and the former Yugoslavia. Since the center-right government of Anders Fogh Rasmussen came to power in 2001, the influx of immigrants from outside the EU has significantly decreased due to stricter immigration rules in Denmark.