Children of immigrants in Denmark participate less in politics than their parents

Tuesday, 11 June 2013
Descendants of non EU Immigrants, born and raised in Denmark, participate less in democracy than their parents, who immigrated to Denmark from non-Western countries.

Contrary to expectation, voter turnout among immigrant descendants, that is the children of immigrants, as exemplified in recent municipal elections in 2009, was lower than that of their parents, according to a recently published study of political activity and choice carried out by researcher at the University of Copenhagen, led by Professor Kasper Møller Hansen.

While 36.9 percent of immigrants from non-Western countries participated in a voting or democratic process,  only 31.7 percent of their descendants voted. It is significantly lower than the turnout for ethnic Danes whose number landed at 67.6 percent.

"One would expect that descendants, born in Denmark, during their Danish education had acquired the norm to vote on an equal footing with their Danish peers. The negative social democratic heritage that is passed on to descendants, we have not managed to break into our society, and it is worrying, "said Kasper Møller Hansen.

Kasper Møller Hansen believes that the low turnout is because Danes marry with people who "look like us." Between 70 and 75 percent of non-Western immigrants and more than 90 percent of the new Danes from Pakistan, Somalia and Turkey to marry a person of the same origin. For ethnic Danes, the figure is 97 percent.
by Scancomark.com Team