In an interview with Helsingin Sanomat, Danish MP and Minister for European Affairs Maria Bjerre only had positive things to say about her country’s migration policy, one of the most restrictive in the EU. The interview by Elina Kervinen was in my opinion a good example of how the media feeds xenophobia by sidestepping some crucial points.
The whole article tells us things we already know, and its purpose is to absolve Denmark’s migration policy of racism, which we have described on Migrant Tales as working on steroids.
Read the full story (in Finnish) here.
Why does this interview wreak of opinionated hogwash?
– It mentions things we already know like doing away with “pull” factors that will discourage asylum seekers (the article brands them as “illegals”) from coming here.
– Bjerre is speaking in code. What she is saying are ways to effectively stop Muslims and other Third Worlders from comig to Europe. No mention in the article about the 6.168 million Ukrainian refugees in Europe, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
– In the face of the millions of Ukrainian refugees, it is absurd that Bjerre opportunistically claims that we have the biggest crisis since 2015 when over a million refugees came to Europe from the Middle East and elsehere.
– The chart below shows you that we are not in a crisis. In fact, Europe only gets the minority of refugees.
– If we make it difficult for migrants to come here – excluding Ukrainians – who is going to replenish our aging population?
Does this chart back what Bjerre is claiming and which the reporter sidesteps? Source: Frontex and Spanish Ministry of Interior.
One of the matters the reporter does not answer is why other EU countries agree with Denmark’s extreme migration policy. There is no mention in the story about the rise of the rise of the xenophobic far right in many EU countries and their support for Albania-type refugee centers.
Due to these issues in the interview, it is the worst example of opinionated journalism that I have read this year. Considering that this was an interview in Finland’s largest daily, makes it even more shameful.
Some of Denmark’s xenophobia is well represented in the picture and cartoon below.
Upon passing the country’s 50th regulation against immigration in 2017, then Minister for Immigration Inger Støjberg celebrated with cake. She was a former member of Bjarre’s party, Venstre.
In the cartoon, Minister Støjberg states to the refugee child: “No arm no cake.”