E-Module Chapter 3: Eviction & Displacement

We invite you to explore the Danish policy on 'ghettos' discussed in chapter 3 in more detail. 

To do this, check the following sources:

• Section 3.2.2 of Chapter 3 of the PusH-Textbook,
• This report of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
  
• Additionally, you can listen to PusH-Podcast Nr. 10 with Dr. Rikke Skovgaard Nielsen.

Now answer the following questions:
 
1) Do you agree with the following statements of UN right experts or not? Clarify for each statement your position (100-200 words each):

• Mandatory instruction in “Danish values” and Danish language for pre-school children is incompatible with racial equality in the enjoyment of cultural rights.
• The definition of “non-Western” is problematic as any country outside the EU, with the exceptions of Andorra, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, San Marino, Switzerland, the USA, and the Vatican State. That means the label “non-Western” is mainly reserved for Denmark’s non-white, non-European ethnic populations. 
• Stigmatizing laws like the Ghetto Package risk intensifying and entrenching xenophobia and racial discrimination against residents in Denmark who are or are perceived as ‘non-Western’
• The sale of buildings in Mjølnerparken, now classified as ‘tough ghetto,’ puts its residents at a high risk of forced eviction in violation of their right to adequate housing

2) Suppose you are the spokesperson for the Danish Housing Minister. How would you defend the Danish policy? Write a short reply to the human right experts of the UN (200-300 words).

3) Suppose that the Danish government would agree with the criticism and abolish the anti-ghetto policy. How would you then, as adviser of the Danish Housing Minister, propose to improve neighbourhoods like Mjølnerparken? (200-300 words).