29 May 2015

Danes talk tough on immigration ahead of election

"Unwanted" and "uncivilised" -- foreigners are sometimes shocked by the blunt tone of Denmark's debate on Muslim immigration, and with a general election around the corner politicians show no sign of toning it down.

"There's no way you can integrate with all this rhetoric because people think you're a criminal or a freeloader," said Kelly Draper, a British-born teacher who came to the Scandinavian country seven years ago.

"The last time I watched the Danish news... they had four main stories and three of them were about how immigrants were ruining everything," she added.

Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt on Wednesday called an election for June 18, and 10 years after daily Jyllands-Posten published the Mohammed cartoons that sparked lethal protests in some Muslim countries, immigration and Islam remain at the top of the agenda. [AFP] Read more