Classifications used by Statistics Denmark
Statistics Denmark divides the countries of the world into groups of ‘Western’ and ‘non-Western’, and the Danish population into groups of ‘immigrants’, ‘descendants’, and ‘people of Danish origin’. Both classifications are problematic.
‘Western’ and ‘non-Western’
Statistics Denmark defines ‘Western’ countries as the 27 EU member states, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the states of Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican. The ‘non-Western’ countries are all the other countries in the world, amounting to more than 150 countries as diverse as Ukraine, China, Mexico, and Lebanon.
The division of the world’s countries into ‘Western’ and ‘non-Western’ is a concept developed by Statistics Denmark that is not widely used in other countries. Norway previously used a categorization of ‘Western’ and ‘non-Western’ countries but has since changed the names of the categories.
Close to all refugees in Denmark come from a country categorized as ‘non-Western’.
Statistics Denmark itself has claimed that the categories “has, in principle, nothing to do with whether the countries belong to one group or another in a geographical, political, economic, or cultural sense,” even though the terms imply a focus on exactly geography, politics, and culture.
The division is neither transparent, unambiguous, nor logically coherent. If you come from Romania or Bulgaria, you are defined as ‘Western,’ but if you come from the neighboring country to the west, Serbia, or from Bosnia and Herzegovina, which lies even further west, you are ‘non-Western,’ while people from Australia and New Zealand – which lie very far to the east – are defined as ‘Western.'
The classification contributes to stigmatization and has drawn criticism from international bodies committed to the protection of ethnic minorities. Read more here.
‘Immigrants’, ‘descendants’, and ‘people of Danish origin’
Under Statistics Denmark’s definition of origin, three criteria determine whether a person is classified as an ‘immigrant’, a ‘descendant’, or a ‘person of Danish origin’:
- Where one is born
- Where one’s parents are born
- What citizenship one’s parents have
A person born abroad to parents, neither of whom are born in Denmark and holds Danish citizenship, is classified as an ‘immigrant’.
A person born in Denmark to parents, neither of whom are born i Denmark and holds Danish citizenship, is classified as a ‘descendant’.
A person with at least one parent who is both born in Denmark and holds Danish citizenship is classified as a ‘person of Danish origin’, regardless of where that person is born.
There are currently 780,954 people living in Denmark who are classified as ‘immigrants’. Of these, 155,045 (2.6% of the total Danish population) originally came to Denmark as refugees or through family reunification with refugees. Today, however, only 67,482 ‘immigrants’ (1.1% of the total Danish population) has asylum or family reunification with a person granted asylum as their basis for residence, Ukrainians granted residence under the special law not included.
Statistics Denmark does not sort ‘descendants’ on their basis for residence, and so it is not possible to say what share of them are in Denmark as a result of a parent’s asylum status.
Refugees are in need of protection and resides in Denmark because they have fled from war or persecution or the like. In this way, they differ from other foreign nationals in Denmark, who typically come to Denmark to work or study.
DENMARK’S POPULATION BY ORIGIN AND CURRENT RESIDENCE STATUS
The division into ‘immigrants’, ‘descendants’, and ‘people of Danish origin’ - and the terms themselves – contribute to stigmatization. It gives the impression that these groups are, individually, more homogeneous than they actually are, and that the differences between them are greater than what is necessarily the case.
In public discourse, the term ‘people of Danish origin’ is often equated with being "Danish". This is despite the fact that the group is far from one homogeneous and unambiguous collection of ethnic Danes. For example, 73,000 ‘people of Danish origin’ were born abroad, 24,000 of whom to a parent who too was born abroad. And 269,000 of them were born in Denmark but have one parent who was born abroad.
When the term is simply translated as ‘Danes’, it suggests a division of people into ‘those who belong here’ and ‘those who have come here’, especially when juxtaposed to a term like ‘immigrant’. This contributes to ‘us and them’ rhetoric, something that would be less the case if the term was replaced with something akin to ‘the rest of the population’.
In Germany, ‘immigrants’ and ‘descendants’ are categorized as ‘people with immigrant background,’ with and without personal migration experience. These terms – in contrast to the Danish ones – emphasize a person’s foreign background as something they bring with them, rather than using it to label them as something they are. In this way, the German terms contribute less to stigmatization.
According to the German definition, all individuals born in Germany who have one parent of foreign origin are included in the group referred to in Denmark as ‘descendants’ - regardless of whether the other parent was born in Germany and is a German citizen. This differs from the distinction used by Statistics Denmark.
The difference can be illustrated with an example: Two Syrian sisters flee to Denmark. The girls integrate into Danish society and obtain Danish citizenship. One sister marries a Syrian man who has also come to Denmark as a refugee, and they have two children together. The other sister has two children with a Danish man. According to the Danish classification, the first sister’s children are categorized as ‘descendants’, while the second sister’s children are categorized as ‘people of Danish origin.’
Following the German classification, all four of the two sister’s children would be categorized as persons with immigrant background.
If the German classification was applied in Denmark, a more positive picture of integration would emerge than what is the case with the current classification, as the difference between the groups on a number of parameters would shrink.
One could say that, under the German classification, persons of one foreign parent and one Danish parent are classified in such a way that they contribute to a more positive image of foreigners’ integration into society, whereas, under the Danish classification, they are classified as ‘people of Danish origin’, thereby making the integration gap seem wider.
The ‘employment rate’ covers people aged 16-64 and is an age-standardized index with the total population set to an index of 100. The ‘education rate’ refers to the proportion of people who, by age 30, have completed a qualifying education program (vocational training or higher education). The ‘crime index’ covers people aged 15-79 with the total population set to an index of 100.