Tenants in Copenhagen’s Mjolnerparken hope the European Court of Justice will rule a Danish redevelopment law targeting “non-Western” areas is discriminatory.
COPENHAGEN: The European Court of Justice will rule on Thursday whether a Danish law mandating the redevelopment of poor urban areas is discriminatory.
The legislation requires social housing estates where over half of residents are “non-Western immigrants and their descendants” to rebuild and change their social mix.
Authorities must ensure at least 60% of homes in these areas are rented at market rates by 2030.
Danish officials say the law aims to eradicate segregation and “parallel societies” in neighbourhoods struggling with crime.
Residents of Copenhagen’s Mjolnerparken estate, who brought the case, are confident they will win.
They argue that using ethnicity to decide where people can live is discriminatory and illegal.
“100 percent we will win,” insisted Julia, a resident who did not want to give her last name.
She said the law was solely about “discrimination and racism”.
Muhammad Aslam, head of the estate’s tenants’ association, said he was “full of hope”.
A preliminary opinion by the court’s advocate general in February called the policy “direct discrimination”.
“If the court’s final ruling were to be along those lines, we will be … completely satisfied,” Aslam said.
The 58-year-old transport company owner from Pakistan has lived in Mjolnerparken since it was built in 1987.
He raised four children there who are now a lawyer, an engineer, a psychologist and a social worker.
“I who am self-employed as well as my children are all included in the negative statistics used to label our neighbourhood a ‘ghetto’,” he said.
The estate’s landlord used a planned renovation to speed up the complex’s transformation under the new law.
All 1,493 residents had to be temporarily relocated for the refurbishment, according to tenants’ association representative Majken Felle.
In 2020, eight out of 10 people in Mjolnerparken were deemed “non-Western”.
Many residents agreed to move to other neighbourhoods permanently to avoid repeated temporary moves.
Those determined to return are at the landlord’s mercy regarding completion dates.
“We were supposed to be temporarily relocated for four months, and now it’s been more than three years,” Aslam sighed.
In total, 295 of the estate’s 560 homes have been replaced, with two blocks sold for market-rate rentals.
Experts say some 11,000 people across Denmark will have to find new housing by 2030 due to the law.
The advocate general said diversification “cannot be achieved by placing an already disadvantaged ethnic group in a less favourable position”.
Even if the court does not rule for the residents, the legal case could continue in Denmark.
“That would mean that Denmark had carte blanche to adopt as many discriminatory laws as it wants,” said Lamies Nassri of the Centre for Muslims’ Rights in Denmark.
“It affects the whole country when there are discriminatory laws, especially Muslim citizens.”
