Europe: From Jewish Ghettos To Immigrant Ghettos

In the aftermath of two world wars, European countries tried to establish their institutions based on democracy and human rights. This was a great start; however, we are currently witnessing the growth of right-wing power, racism and anti-immigrant sentiments in Europe. The same attitude that led to two destructive world wars.

After nearly nine hours of negotiations, European leaders reached a new agreement on migration laws on Friday 29 June 2018.

On the national level, however, some countries introduced extremely disturbing anti-immigrantion laws by the name of integration policies!

This article is about the new law in Denmark that forcefully separates the “Ghetto children” from their “Ghetto parents”.

Starting at the age of 1, “ghetto children” must be separated from their families for at least 25 hours a week, not including nap time, for mandatory instruction in “Danish values,” including the traditions of Christmas and Easter, and Danish language.

This law includes the people who live in 25 low-income neighborhoods. The following article brings the stories and point of views of two sides of Danish society. The side that believes that immigrants are misusing the system and the side that believes in the values of solidarity between nations. The right-wing parties are using this case for absolute political gains.

Using the word "ghetto" has become a norm, as Yildiz Akdogan, one of the residents of these ghettos, said:

Danes had become so desensitized to harsh rhetoric about immigrants that they no longer register the negative connotation of the word “ghetto” and its echoes of Nazi Germany’s separation of Jews.

The author attempts to draw attention to emigration laws that are disguised as integration in Europe. What we have to keep in mind while reading this article is the following: if social justice was actually applied universally, no human would have left their homeland and loved ones to live in the ghettos of other countries!