People crossing from Greece to Macedonia on 8 August 2015. Stephen Ryan (IFRC)/Flickr. (CC 2.0 by-nc-nd).
Denmark has been in the headlines in the past weeks for passing a controversial law on seizing asylum seekers’ assets, allegedly a measure designed to offset the cost of the newcomers’ upkeep using their own wealth. Migration minister Inger Stoejberg rationalised the policy by stating that “those people who can manage by themselves shouldn't have assistance from the state”.
Indeed, the imposed threshold of 10,000 kroner (£1,000) is in line with welfare rules for Danish nationals, which require the sale of personal assets exceeding this amount to receive state support. As such, the policy is presented as a way of reaching some sort of levelling between all benefits recipients in Denmark, irrespective of their origins. Equality of the poor, in essence.
