As immigration presents a problem for nations throughout the western world, policy towards immigrants reveals commitment to claimed values. In Denmark, xenophobia – which finds support from both government and the people – seems to have won out over liberalism.

In his 2018 New Year’s Eve speech, Danish Prime Minster Lars Lokke Rasmussen said that ghettos, areas designed by the government for having a high concentration of poor immigrants, “reach out their tentacles into the streets where criminal gangs create insecurity.” A few lines later, in the same speech, the prime minister continued that these ghettos are coming “into society at large where Danish values such as equality, broad-mindedness, and tolerance are losing ground.”