Social cohesion and the transformation from ethnic to multicultural society: The Case of Denmark

Abstract

Danish society used to have a very homogenous culture; everybody was Lutheran and there were only very small groups of ethnic minorities. However, since the 1960s the immigration of foreign workers and refugees has created substantial minority groups of people who are very different ethnically, religiously and linguistically. Becoming a multicultural country may be particularly problematic for such a formerly homogeneous society; formal and informal rules for the co-existence of different ethnic and religious segments of the society have until now not been necessary.