When the Cold Wind Blows: Legal Strategies against Ghettoization in Denmark

Abstract

The paper will present and analyze the Danish government’s strategy against “ghettoization.” This strategy includes a wide range of legal initiatives aiming to prevent certain social housing estates from developing into what the government defined as “ghettos.” The government’s strategy mainly promotes initiatives to control the access to socially exposed neighborhoods. The issue of controlling who should be removed from the neighborhoods is left to the discretion of the social housing organizations. These organizations have started a practice that involves evicting families with criminal children living at home. The right to housing is accordingly challenged within different frameworks. The right to access to housing is challenged in the light of government regulation which prohibits people on social welfare to move into the areas. The right to stay in housing is challenged in the light of social housing organizations initiating court procedures to evict unwanted tenants. Taking a rights-based approach to housing law, the paper will assess the legal consequences of these different strategies. Claiming that the strategies are silencing the real victims of ghettoization, the paper will explore the possible ways of addressing the discriminatory aspects of the legal strategies.