At a Policy Exchange event today, Kemi Badenoch let slip she’s “looking at” a controversial Danish-style housing policy designed to tackle so-called ‘parallel societies’—once referred to as “ghettos”—by relocating migrants from certain inner-city areas. Denmark’s version lets the state step in if over half the residents in a neighbourhood are deemed to be from “non-Western” backgrounds, then forces public housing down to just 30–40% within ten years, and nudges displaced people into private rentals elsewhere.
Ms Badenoch admitted the British approach to integration has been too passive, adding: “Until now we’ve had what I call passive integration—people coming to the country in small numbers over a small period—and it’s very easy to absorb and assimilate. But we’ve had so many people, high numbers, people from lots of different places, which is not what immigration used to look like, and I think we need to move from passive to active integration”, reported the Express.
