Danish politicians want immigrants to be taught about sex

Danish parliamentrians wants language courses for immigrants to include a component on national attitudes to sex. The calls come with recent figures showing a disproportionate number of rapes in the country are committed by immigrants and their descendants.

Representatives from four parties, including the centre left Social Democrats and anti-immigration Danish People's Party, want sex education for immigrants to be introduced. According to official figures, between 2013 and 2014, 34.5% of all rapes were committed by immigrants or their descendants, despite this group making up only 12% of the country's population.

Supporters of the measure point to the success of a similar scheme in Norway, where residents in asylum centres can choose to take a five-hour course focussing on attitudes to sex.

"We talk about opinions toward sex and we explain Norwegian law. Some asylum seekers think that Norway is a very liberal country when it comes to sex and misunderstand women's signals," Linda Hagen, who leads an organisation that runs 34 asylum centres in Norway, told Denmark's Metroxpress.

"In reality, we are doing asylum seekers a disservice if we do not teach them about this. They really want to talk about it and learn more and they have a lot of questions," she added.

According to figures from Statistics Denmark, of the 615 people who received a rape conviction from a Danish Court between 2004 and 2013, 212 were immigrants or descended from immigrants.

"New Danes are clearly over-represented among those convicted of rape. Some immigrants do not know and do not understand Danish gender culture, and that if a Danish woman is drunk going home at night that does not mean that she is accessible," sociologist and immigration expert Mehmet Ümit Necef told Metro after the release of the figures in August.

The measure is backed by representatives from the Social Democrats, the Radicals, Danish People's Party and Conservatives.

Peter Skaarup, chairman of the anti-immigration DF told Metroxpress that the measure should be introduced immediately: "If what they are doing in Norway is working, we should copy it," he said.

Denmark's new centre right government has introduced a range of measures designed to stem immigration, including restrictions on the benefits immigrants can access. An all-time high of almost 65,000 immigrants moved to Denmark in 2014, up 15% from the previous year.