Denmark: New liberal coalition dismantles immigration ministry, endorses multiculturalism.

[pampango]

Over the tenure of the Liberal-Conservative (VK) government and its ally, the fervently anti-immigration Danish People’s Party (DF), the rules for residency permits, family reunification, asylum and citizenship changed constantly – nearly always becoming stricter– and the immigration debate became more and more charged.

With one fell swoop, the new Social Dem-Social Lib-Socialist People’s Party (S-R-SF) coalition this week sent a strong signal that all of that is about to change.

The Immigration Ministry – which played such an important role in Danish headlines and in thousands of people’s lives – is being disbanded, and the Immigration Service (Udlændingeservice) – where so many queued up with stacks of documents and hopes in their hands – will no longer be a self-standing institution. The Immigration Ministry and Immigration Service’s 300 employees will be absorbed into the Justice Ministry and Social Ministry, among others. There will no longer be an ‘immigration minister’, but a combined ‘social and integration minister’, the Social Dems’ Karen Hækkerup.

...the divisive tone in the immigration debate was over. “The vast majority of immigrants in Denmark do not have problems integrating,” the common policy states. “They are completely normal members of Danish society.”

The Social Liberals, with their powerful position in the new coalition, and the government’s far-left support party, the Red-Green Alliance, are mostly credited with the dramatic political changes in the field of immigration.

http://www.cphpost.dk/component/content/52265.html?task=view

I bet the far-right, anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party is turning over in its political grave.