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I really was biting my tongue to write this as dry and neutral as possible. I am from Denmark and in many ways we are similar to Germany. But we are different
by chvid 11y ago
I really was biting my tongue to write this as dry and neutral as possible.
I am from Denmark and in many ways we are similar to Germany.
But we are different in that we have taken in a relatively small number of refugees (around 25.000 pa. excl. family reunions, population 6 mio.) and yet the subject number 1 in Danish politics is how to handle the strech on public finances it creates.
This may be due to two things:
1. Denmark is more generous to refugees and/or integrates them more poorly.
2. Denmark has different politics where it is okay to talk refugees as expenses. (Whether they are or not is another question - my point is that our politicians talk about it in this way.)
What I wrote would absolutely not be controversial to say in Denmark but I can see from the downvotes that it is different elsewhere.
Which I think underlines my point that this subject really is too touchy to have a good conversation about.
- creshal 11y ago> But we are different in that we have taken in a relatively small number of refugees (around 25.000 pa. excl. family reunions, population 6 mio.) and yet the subject number 1 in Danish politics is how to handle the strech on public finances it creates. How much of that stretch is real, and how much is fear-mongering to influence upcoming elections? Do you have hard numbers?
- morsch 11y agoIt's completely reasonable to talk about refugees in terms of what they cost -- the number is important since it has to be accounted for in the budget planning after all. When you've got a reasonable feel for how high that number is, it's worth putting it into the context of the general budget to determine whether it "stretches it" (again, whatever that means). I don't have either of those numbers for Denmark. What to do with either of them is a separate question, if the estimated cost (or its relation to the general budget) is so high that it warrants barring the entry to asylum seekers. This is obviously a difficult thing to judge, since it trades off economic policy against what is typically framed in terms of basic human rights. Thanks for staying cool. :) I do think it's possible to have a reasonable conversation about this, and you are right that it is often strange how different the conversation is even just across the border.