Denmark doesn't like foreigners - but Belgium does

Europeans talk a lot about being 'inclusive'. But talk is cheap. How do they actually treat the 13 million EU residents in the fifteen old Member States who are not naturalised immigrants? Until now there has been a lot of rhetoric, but not much factual, comparative information about these legal labour migrants and family members, or 'Third Country Nationals' (TCNs) as they are called.

Andrew Geddes at the University of Sheffield and Jan Niessen of the Migration Policy Group have just produced The European Civic Citizenship and Inclusion Index 2004. The report, part funded by the British Council Brussels, is now available free online. The report examines policies in around 100 policy areas and presents averages of performance in five broad policy areas: labour market inclusion, residence, family reunion, naturalization and anti-discrimination. The British Council website says "it is hoped that the Index will extend to all 25 Member States in an annual publication".

I was surprised by the overall rankings, which can be found at page 31 of the report but were not highlighted in the findings. Belgium ranked best overall in its treatment of TCNs. It had the best anti-discrimination policies in the EU-15, and was above-average in the other four policy areas. Also performing well were the Netherlands, Sweden and Portugal.

More of a surprise were the laggards. Greece and Luxembourg did badly, but worst was Denmark - it was well below-average in all five policy strands. TCNs account for 5% of the Danish population. Their unemployment rate is more than three times as high as Danish nationals, and the gap has widened since 2002. The report comments:

The 1992 Danish opt-out in the sector of Justice and Home Affairs – coupled with an opt-out on European citizenship – affects commentary on migration and inclusion issues considerably. While the Danish Presidency of the EU made a positive reference to the economic and social inclusion of TCNs in 2002, this remains an extremely sensitive area in domestic political debate.

Now one can understand why!

As for Britain, it was neither lousy nor lovely: rather, they came "very close to the European average in each indicator."

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[Edward Hugh]

Very interesting and timely post. Thanks for the link. On Denmark see my coverage of the polish plummers issue on AFEM yesterday, and today on Germany and Afghan refugees.

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Interesting read, even if I'm a few years late :) The situation in Denmark hasn't changed any - if anything, it seems to have gotten worse.

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