Justice minister’s PET controls further panned
India clamps down on Danish tourists
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22 - 28 February 2013 | Vol 16 Issue 8
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Young stars warned to stay away from England
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Denmark’s only English-language newspaper | cphpost.dk SCANPIX / KELD NAVNTOFT
NEWS
Trash vigilante’s beautification project comes to an end, but city is silent on its success
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Hurry up!
NEWS
Tunnel still coming
In the first of its ‘Big Bang’ reforms, government tries to prod students into getting through school faster
Despite funding cuts, politicians still think Fehmarn Tunnel to Germany will go ahead
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7 BUSINESS
Although sales were slow at home, Carlsberg says it continues to grow in eastern markets
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HISTORY
A day that shook the nation On 17 September 1965, four unarmed policemen were murdered in cold blood
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Marginalised immigrant women on near-permanent welfare JYLLANDS-POSTEN Female immigrants from non-Western countries make up 25 percent of cash benefit recipients – a sign that the “system has failed”, the employment minister says
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HIGH NUMBER of immigrant women from non-Western countries are permanently reliant on cash welfare benefits. Some 24,000 people have received cash welfare benefits (kontanthjælp) for more than ten years throughout the past 15 years, and almost 6,000 of these are immigrant women from a non-Western background. Immigrant women from non-West-
ern countries only make up 3.4 percent of the Danish population between 16 and 64 years of age, so they are therefore heavily over-represented amongst longterm kontanthjælp recipients. Both researchers and politicians consider these facts a sign of failure of the Danish benefits system. “The kontanthjælp system is supposed to be a temporary security net and not a permanent relief scheme,” Jon Kvist, a political science professor at the University of Southern Denmark, said. “We have a system that functions more as a salary or a parallel to the early retirement pension scheme (førtidspension).” Erik Simonsen, the deputy director of the national employer’s association, Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening, agreed. “The councils and the employment
centre system have failed and that shows that a cash benefit reform should also be an integration reform,” Simonsen said. The employment minister, Mette Frederiksen (Socialdemokraterne), acknowledged that numbers were a sign that the “system has failed”. “I agree with the observation that we have created a system that appears to be a parallel to early retirement pension,” Frederiksen said. “This is a sign that the current cash benefit system has failed. It was never the intention that people would receive cash benefits for years.” Frederiksen also admitted that the situation represented an integration issue. “Especially for immigrant women, this causes a problem,” she said. “When thousands of them haven’t been able to provide for themselves, that creates neg-
ative consequences for gender equality. For the coming negotiations on kontanthjælp reform, we will make sure that the situation does not continue.” Integration consultant Hans Lassen warned against making the immigrant women scapegoats. He said that many of the women have difficulties imagining themselves on the labour market due to language barriers and a lack of experience. “They have a hard time imagining how they can be useful,” Lassen said, adding however that he is encouraged that many of the women on kontanthjælp have higher expectations for their children. PM and opposition trade blame Helle Thorning-Schmidt says immigrant women need to work, but shies away from responsibility, read it online at cphpost.dk
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