{"id":64837,"date":"2016-09-14T10:33:14","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T15:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?p=64837"},"modified":"2016-09-11T14:33:55","modified_gmt":"2016-09-11T19:33:55","slug":"alarms-in-denmark-over-immigrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/09\/14\/alarms-in-denmark-over-immigrants\/","title":{"rendered":"Alarms in Denmark over Immigrants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

David Zucchino<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

TAARNBY, Denmark \u2014 Johnny Christensen, a stout and silver-whiskered retired bank employee, always thought of himself as sympathetic to people fleeing war and welcoming to immigrants. But after more than 36,000 mostly Muslim asylum seekers poured into Denmark<\/a> over the past two years, Mr. Christensen, 65, said, \u201cI\u2019ve become a racist.\u201d<\/p>\n

He believes these new migrants are draining Denmark\u2019s cherished social-welfare system but failing to adapt to its customs. \u201cJust kick them out,\u201d he said, unleashing a mighty kick at an imaginary target on a suburban sidewalk. \u201cThese Muslims want to keep their own culture, but we have our own rules here and everyone must follow them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denmark, a small and orderly nation with a progressive self-image, is built on a social covenant: In return for some of the world\u2019s highest wages and benefits, people are expected to work hard and pay into the system. Newcomers must quickly learn Danish \u2014 and adapt to norms like keeping tidy gardens and riding bicycles.<\/p>\n

The country had little experience with immigrants until 1967, when the first \u201cguest workers\u201d were invited from Turkey, Pakistan and what was then Yugoslavia. Its 5.7 million people remain overwhelmingly native born, though the percentage has dropped to 88 today from 97 in 1980.<\/p>\n

Bo Lidegaard, a prominent historian, said many Danes feel strongly that \u201cwe are a multiethnic society today, and we have to realize it \u2014 but we are not and should never become a multicultural society.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recent influx<\/a> pales next to the one million migrants absorbed into Germany<\/a> or the 163,000 into Sweden last year, but the pace shocked this stable, homogeneous country. The center-right government has backed harsh measures targeting migrants, hate speech has spiked, and the anti-immigrant Danish People\u2019s Party is now the second largest in Parliament.<\/p>\n

Some of the same hostilities were reflected this weekend in Germany, where voters in Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s home state embraced anti-immigrant candidates \u2014 an emphatic rejection of her refugee policy.<\/p>\n

There is new tension between Danes still opening their arms and a resurgent right wing that seeks to ban all Muslims and shut Denmark off from Europe. Mr. Christensen, the retired banker, supports emerging proposals for his country to follow Britain in exiting the European Union.<\/p>\n

There is tension, too, over whether the backlash is really about a strain on Denmark\u2019s generous public benefits or a rising terrorist threat \u2014 or whether a longstanding but latent racial hostility is being unearthed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Zucchino: TAARNBY, Denmark \u2014 Johnny Christensen, a stout and silver-whiskered retired bank employee, always thought of himself as sympathetic to people fleeing war and welcoming to immigrants. But after more than 36,000 mostly Muslim asylum seekers poured into Denmark over the past two years, Mr. Christensen, 65, said, \u201cI\u2019ve become a racist.\u201d He believes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAlarms in Denmark over Immigrants<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"David Zucchino: TAARNBY, Denmark \u2014 Johnny Christensen, a stout and silver-whiskered retired bank employee, always thought of himself as sympathetic to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/09\/14\/alarms-in-denmark-over-immigrants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alarms in Denmark over Immigrants\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"David Zucchino: TAARNBY, Denmark \u2014 Johnny Christensen, a stout and silver-whiskered retired bank employee, always thought of himself as sympathetic to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/09\/14\/alarms-in-denmark-over-immigrants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-09-14T15:33:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-09-11T19:33:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/09\/14\/alarms-in-denmark-over-immigrants\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/09\/14\/alarms-in-denmark-over-immigrants\/\",\"name\":\"Alarms in Denmark over Immigrants\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-09-14T15:33:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-11T19:33:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"David Zucchino: TAARNBY, Denmark \u2014 Johnny Christensen, a stout and silver-whiskered retired bank employee, always thought of himself as sympathetic to\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/09\/14\/alarms-in-denmark-over-immigrants\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/09\/14\/alarms-in-denmark-over-immigrants\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2016\/09\/14\/alarms-in-denmark-over-immigrants\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Alarms in Denmark over Immigrants\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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