In a non-binding opinion, the European Court of Justice's (ECJ's) advocate general, Tamara Capeta, declared that Denmark's social housing law, dubbed the "ghetto law," which distinguishes between Western and non-Western residents, discriminates based on ethnic origin.
The Danish law, enacted in 2018, requires areas with more than 50% non-Western residents and unfavorable socioeconomic conditions to reduce public housing by 40% through demolition, sales, or conversion by 2030.
Areas are classified as "parallel societies" when they meet the migrant population criteria — alongside other criteria including unemployment, crime rates, education levels, and income. They're dubbed "transformation areas" if they remain this way for five years, which allows for demolition.
It's terribly sad that it took an ECJ court case to begin fighting back against Denmark's racist public housing laws. While this law clearly targeted Muslim migrants, who already face rampant Islamophobia in Danish society, it simultaneously destroyed the lives of Danish citizens and their families, regardless of their ethnicity. This law has now been condemned by Danish, EU, and UN authorities, so, hopefully, the final ruling will officially end it for good.
The timing of this ruling is insulting, coming around the ten-year anniversary of two terror attacks committed by a Danish-born man of Palestinian descent. Denmark is also not discriminatory — it's simply responding to the data that shows immigrants are a net negative economically and commit a disproportionate amount of violent crime. While EU judges play abstract politics, Denmark faces the deadly consequences of forced immigration.