Denmark Sees Percentage of Foreigners Swell–Agency
Times of Malta, April 20, 2011
Immigrants and their direct descendants now make up some 10.1 per cent of Denmark’s population, according to a report confirmed by the official Danish statistics agency.
The Jyllands-Posten daily calculated that official statistics from February showed immigrants and their descendants accounted for 10.1 per cent of the total population, or 562,517 people in a country of some 5,560,628.
Statistics Denmark confirmed the calculation and explained that it defines “descendants” as the children in Denmark to foreign nationals, adding that as soon as one of the parents obtains Danish citizenship the children are no longer labelled “descendants”.
“The nationalities have changed over the past 10 years, particularly following EU enlargement. Now immigration largely takes place as a result of work permits rather than refugees, with Poland in particular as a main country of origin,” Statistics Denmark Population analyst Dorthe Larsen said.
Since 2001, the far-right, anti-immigration Danish People’s Party has been a key ally of the centre-right government and the country’s immigration policies are today considered among the most restrictive in Europe.
