Immigration needn't be such a mess – Denmark's work-for-benefits model could be win-win for all

No politics is perfect, but I am often disheartened when I sit down for a drink with a fellow woke-despising, pro-Israel free-speech cheerleader, only to find that, as well as those I heartily endorse, they hold views I find dismaying. Being rabidly anti-immigration is one.

For it betrays a sad misunderstanding. There is no need to see immigration as a necessary evil; anyone can become a model citizen of the West. Immigration, especially mass immigration, is only bad when it is out of control: for instance, when no system is in place for integrating immigrants so that they energise and contribute to – rather than deplete – the host society.

Sadly, we in the West have completely lost sight of how to make immigration work for, rather than against, both us and migrants. Terrified of being perceived as racist, or Westist, or whatever, we don’t insist on immigrants assimilating, swiftly learning the language and getting jobs – a process we make difficult even when the will is there. The result is the mess we now have in Britain: scores of migrants arriving by boats, stuck in useless limbo on arrival and costing the taxpayer sharply.

It doesn’t have to be this way. What has become a lose-lose situation could become a win-win for all concerned, but it takes guts in the current climate to make it happen. And this is why I was interested last week to learn of Denmark’s new stance: under new proposals, immigrants, who account for 13 per cent of Denmark’s population, must work at least 37 hours a week or face losing state benefits. Its prime minister Mette Frederiksen, of the Left-wing social democrat party, said: “People have a duty to contribute and make themselves useful and if they can’t find a regular job they will have to work for their [welfare] allowance.”

The policy would abolish benefits for migrants who have been in Denmark for more than three years, cannot prove that they speak basic Danish and don’t have a full-time job, and see money cut for recent unemployed graduates.

The measures are particularly aimed at Denmark’s women of working age born in the Middle East, north Africa, Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan, 60 per cent of whom do not have a job. What is striking about the Danish policy is that, despite its plain language, it comes across as more practical than xenophobic. The economy needs a reboot after Covid, and this work-for-benefits plan “could be a job on the beach picking up cigarette butts or plastic or helping to solve various tasks within a company”, according to Peter Hummelgaard, the labour minister. Crucially, it acknowledges that low expectations aren’t good for migrants either. “For too many years we have done a disservice to people by not expecting anything of them,” said Frederiksen.

This echoes the argument made persuasively by Ayaan Hirsi Ali in her latest book, Prey, which I read last week. Hirsi Ali, a feminist and renowned critic of Islam, herself a refugee to Europe by way of Africa and the Middle East, makes a rigorous case for the need to overhaul immigration policy, in large part to protect the rights of women whom she argues are threatened by an influx of young men from countries without respect for women’s rights. 

Migrants and the host country both, she says, are let down by the lack of rigorous framework or incentive for assimilating the new arrivals. But, as she points out, at a time when the West is convulsed with self-hatred, with those in power – especially in America – insistent on the need to withdraw from the world stage so as not to seem imperialist, we are failing to assert our values and demand that those who migrate here adopt them or leave. Hirsi Ali proposes an immediate solution: offer mandatory classes in how to treat women. Those who don’t turn up must go. Likewise the threat of deportation must be real for those who commit crimes.

The Danish proposals are milder: there is less talk of deportation. Instead the focus is on asking those who have chosen to move to Denmark to work, or if they can’t work, to do something beneficial for their keep. Hirsi Ali’s book was a number one bestseller in Denmark, but has been ignored or reviled in the US, where mainstream media is run by those who prefer to deal in post-modern ideology than reality. Many on the Left have responded badly to the Danish proposals too, seeming to prefer to continue as though nothing can or should be improved. But as Hirsi Ali points out, that route only emboldens an extreme Right wing, which is far worse, in the end, for those risking their lives to pursue a new one in the West.

You can read Zoe Strimpel’s column every Sunday. Click here to read last week's column