Denmark to Vote on Controversial Migrant Bill
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN HOST: Ahead at the INTERNATIONAL DESK, can migrants keep their valuables? Denmark vote on a controversial new law. Iran's president meets with Pope Francis. And his lead is huge. Donald Trump dominates his Republican rivals in a new poll.</s>CURNOW: Hello and welcome. I'm Robyn Curnow at the CNN Center. Right now, Europe's dilemma over what to do about the tide of migrants looking for a new home is playing out in Denmark. The Danish parliament will vote any time now on a bill that, among other things, would require migrants to turn over cash and additional assets to pay for their stay. The government says this would bring migrants in line with Danish citizens who claim aid from the state. Many see the bill as a deterrent to the record number of migrants streaming in to Europe from Iraq, Syria and elsewhere. As Europe grapples with that refugee crisis, this bill seems to get to the heart of Denmark's identity. For more, here is senior international correspondent Arwa Damon in Copenhagen.</s>ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is a volunteer-run center for refugees and those who are teaching the new arrivals are appalled by Denmark's new legislation, coined the "jewelry bill." Seventy-two-year-old Wiebke Keson is from Germany. She grew up in the ruins of World War II but has called Denmark home for decades.</s>WIEBKE KESON, VOLUNTEER: I was shocked when I heard about this idea of confiscating jewelry from refugees. Since I'm German, I was immediately thinking about our own history.</s>DAMON (voice-over): The bill has been through several incarnations. Now it excludes items of sentimental value but anything worth more than $1,500, cash or valuables, can potentially be confiscated from asylum seekers. But the larger aim of the bill is clear: to deter asylum seekers from coming here.</s>MARTIN HENDRICKSON, DANISH PEOPLE'S PARTY: We hope this will be -- start a chain reaction through Europe, where other European country can see there is a need to tighten the rules on immigration in order to keep European culture.</s>DAMON (voice-over): He and supporters of the bill believe Denmark's very way of life is under threat from migrants and refugees from non-Western societies. That said, there are plenty of people here who cannot believe that a Danish government would even debate this type of legislation, which humanitarian and aid groups argue is only going to exacerbate the situation.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Their own attempt to find a common European solution to this, every country is now trying to fence themselves in, trying to scare refugees and asylum seekers away. And this is not going to work in the long run because we have a lot of people in need of international protection. And they are being pushed from one country to the other.</s>DAMON (voice-over): Hardest for the refugees to bear is a new provision that will delay family reunification, extending the wait from one year to three before an individual could even apply. At one of the camps, Amani (ph) shows us pictures of her 9-year-old daughter, still in Syria. Thoughts that she might not see her daughter until she is a teenager or that she might not even see her at all are just too much. "Sometimes I say to my friends, I'm scared that if I die here, my daughter won't know where her mother is buried," she tells us. "I'm scared that one day I will look online and see a picture of my daughter because something happened to her." Those who wanted to keep the refugees out may have just succeeded. Amani (ph) has no intention of trying to stay here.</s>CURNOW: Now Arwa Damon joins us now from Copenhagen. Hi, there, Arwa. This debate in parliament is continuing. When do you think there will be a vote?</s>DAMON: Well, an hour ago we were expecting the vote at any moment and we are still awaiting; the debates surrounding this has been going on for quite a few hours here. Those support the bill are arguing that this is the only way that Denmark can protect itself and that even though some issues within it are painful, such as the prolongation of family reunification, they believe that this is the only way to deter asylum seekers from coming here. And the bill is expected to pass very --</s>DAMON: -- easily, to have a very easy majority. But those who oppose the bill are arguing that Denmark can't insulate itself in this way and that this issue is not just a Danish issue. It's not an issue that relates to any one country. It's one that relates to all of Europe. And therefore, solutions have to be Europe-wide. There has to be a quota system that is instated because the way this bill currently stands, it really is going to add to the suffering of the asylum seekers who are already here or those who want to try their chances in getting here. And it's really thrown Denmark into something of a moral dilemma with a fair amount of debate within parliament and outside of it as to what Denmark was, what it is today and what is it going to be in the future. What kind of a nation is it going to be in the future, as one opposition parliamentary member was arguing? Is Denmark going to want to be perceived as a nation that deliberately keeps families apart, as one that does not try to be at the forefront of these types of crises? Or is it going to try to live up to its former reputation of a nation that is always at the forefront of humanitarian assistance, a nation that brings families together -- Robyn.</s>CURNOW: Yes. There's lots to talk about, Arwa Damon, thanks so much, coming to us there from Copenhagen. I think what is important here is that the Danes have debated this bill publically. But in Switzerland and Germany, laws have existed for decades, allowing assets to be confiscated from asylum seekers to pay for their stay. In Switzerland, the government has the right to seize assets in excess of $1,000. There are dozens of cases where this has happened. In Germany, it's up to individual states whether or not to carry out the federal law. It has reportedly been implemented in some southern states. Well, in Denmark this proposed law has wide-ranging support across political parties. Now for a country that has a deep humanitarian instinct, as Arwa was saying, this is an important point. To understand why Danes, for the most part, are supportive of such tough legislation, I want to bring in Danish journalist and political commentator, Thomas Larsen. Great to have you here on CNN, Thomas. You spend your days, gauging the mood of Danes, politically and socially. Why have Danes generally, across the board, supported these moves?</s>THOMAS LARSEN, JOURNALIST: I think a lot of Danes, they actually don't like the new bill and they don't like to see the criticism of Denmark in the international media. Normally Denmark is portrayed as a very open, tolerant society with a lot of social security. And now we are portrayed as a very harsh and tough society. And of course that hurts a lot of Danes. So why do Danes actually support and why do the majority of the political parties support this bill? I think the real reason is that many people, they are afraid of the influence of the scale of the influx. They don't think that we can be able to integrate the newcomers in the Danish society. And also they think we have a very bad and I would say sad record when it comes to integrate people here in Denmark. Of course, during the last 20 to 25 years we have said welcome to many people from the outside worlds. And they have been able to get integrated. They have jobs, they get education. Their families are thriving. But unfortunately, we can also see that a lot of people have not been able to get integrated. They don't have jobs. They don't get the necessary education. Some of the families, they tend to live in new ghettos. We have never seen that before in Denmark. And also, as you know from other countries in Europe, some of the young people, they tend to make crime and, in the most severe instances, they actually also get radicalized. So a lot of things, they have lost their hope that this integration can be made in such a big scale which is necessary now when so many refugees come to Denmark. I think that's the explanation.</s>CURNOW: So in many ways, it's a failure of integration, you are saying, based on past experience, based on Danes looking around them, fearful of what that means on a larger scale. Also, I mean I've spent many times and we've talked before in Copenhagen and Denmark, Thomas, about Danish national identity. It's a very hard- fought, very passionate sense of themselves. And a lot of that is also based on the social welfare system. And there's also big debate on the impact a huge migration would have on that. And it's a very real fear, isn't it?</s>LARSEN: I think there is a very important point this one because in Denmark, we are very proud of our welfare system. We are proud that we can deliver free education, that everyone would have access to school, to university, free, that everyone can have health care, even though they don't have a job, don't -- aren't a part of society financially but --</s>LARSEN: -- they always get help from the society. But, of course, this system is very, very expensive to run. Therefore, Denmark economically needs a lot of good taxpayers. Because every Dane will pay a very, very high tax to get this system running. Therefore, if you have a big number, many of the population who is not able to get inside the part of society, they are standing on the sideline to society without job, and that has really been the case for many of the new people coming to Denmark from especially non-Western countries. Then of course is an enormous economic burden on this society. And I think a lot of Danes, they are afraid of this. Also I have to say, especially when it comes to people from a number of the other countries, we also have experienced in Denmark, like in other European countries, some culture clashes when it comes to religion, when it comes to how we look at women. In Denmark we have a long, strong tradition that men and women, they are totally equal and so on. So that's caused problems during the years. And that's why the -- both the politicians also the Danes, they have changed their views on immigration. And also they are less inclined today to help refugees, I think that's fair to say.</s>CURNOW: OK. Thomas Larsen, thank you so much for your perspective, for giving us an understanding of the mood there in Copenhagen on what is a tough choice. Thank you so much, Thomas Larsen there. Well, in deadly stabbing in Sweden Monday has underscored concerns about the influx of migrants. Police say a teenage asylum seeker attacked a Swedish woman at a refugee center where he was staying. She was an employee. Officials say this is the worst case of violence involving migrants but not an isolated incident.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Many people have newly arrived in Sweden and we have responded to multiple disturbances on a weekly basis around the western region and also in the rest of Sweden. We've had many alarms from asylum centers, perhaps because people just aren't feeling well.</s>CURNOW: Well, Sweden took in more than 160,000 asylum seekers last year, it was one of the highest proportions of refugees per capita in the E.U. Many of them are young men. This is the INTERNATIONAL DESK. Ahead, the U.S. presidential campaign; Democratic candidates face off one last time before next Monday's Iowa caucuses. The tough questions they face on key issues on CNN. Plus anger in the streets of Paris. Find out why taxi drivers are on strike. Stay with us for more.