Denmark: Young women fight the government’s ghetto list Denmark draws up a list of areas it dubs 'ghettos' every year. This time, a group of young women from one of the vulnerable neighborhoods has been trying to put a stop to what they see as stigmatization.

(Deutsche Welle) This year four young women from one of Denmark’s so-called ghettos, Tingbjerg, had had enough. In an open letter to Housing Minister Kaare Dybvad, they protested against the annual “ghetto list” of underprivileged neighborhoods that the Danish government presents each December.

“Remove the list,” they wrote. “Please do not tell us once again that we are a problem,” and on behalf of the youth in Tingbjerg they launched a petition together with ActionAid Denmark, an NGO, urging the minister to put an end to the ghetto list.

“The ghetto list stigmatizes us,” says 19-year-old Amina Safi (photo above), one of the initiators of the letter, at the new public library and culture house in Tingbjerg. “We feel like second-class citizens. Tingbjerg is such a great area, but we constantly have to defend ourselves because of our address.”

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