Yesterday we looked at how the migrant crisis in Europe was affecting Norway and forcing their leaders to look at new restrictions and possible border control measures. Anyone who is keeping an eye on the effect that all of these “economic refugees” and potential terrorists is having on the world and how it may come to affect the United States next year should be watching closely. The same questions are now hitting home in Denmark, where the ruling coalition under Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen has moved quickly to take steps which will cut social welfare benefits to the incoming horde. This is clearly designed to make Denmark a less attractive destination for the migrants, and if they do manage to make it there they are toughening up the requirements to qualify for citizenship.

Denmark, which earlier this year slashed benefits for asylum seekers, said Monday it is making it more difficult to acquire citizenship in the Scandinavian country. “Acquiring Danish citizenship is something very special, and therefore it also reasonable that we now raise the bar for when a person can call themselves a Danish citizen,” Integration Minister Inger Stojberg said in a statement. Those wanting to become Danish nationals will have to meet tougher requirements on language skills, and be financially self-sufficient for four years and six months of the past five years, up from the current two years and six months.

The famed Danish welfare state is also being trimmed back severely for those who are not actually natives of Denmark.

Under the new rules, which came into effect in September, an asylum seeker without children receives 5,945 kroner (797 euros, $882) per month in benefits, almost half the 10,849 kroner they previously received. Single parents arriving from a non-EU country receive 11,888 kroner per month compared to the previous 14,426 kroner.

Aside from fundamental concerns about national security, there are several reasons for those of us in the United States to be keeping a close eye on these developments. For one thing, the trend lines present a real challenge to liberals here as they try to defend their arguments about the “need” for America to take in hundreds of thousands of Syrian and Iraqi refugees and, possibly, the “economic migrants” from other neighboring areas. Denmark is essentially one of those socialist paradises that liberals look to wistfully. They hand out money for essentially nothing in many cases and restrict the essential freedoms of their citizens in the name of having Big Brother take care of everyone. But now, faced with a real challenge on their borders, they are slashing the generous benefits they were handing out to the newly arrived visitors. (You can seriously get almost a thousand dollars a month just for moving there? I may need to rethink my options…)

More to the point, however, is the fact that this welcoming, socialist nation is now going full bore nationalist. That’s a term – as we’ve previously discussed – which liberals in the U.S. have equated with hate groups and racists. Anything that impedes the flow of outsiders is, by definition, hateful according to the liberal playbook. But look at what Denmark is doing now. They’re demanding that new arrivals learn to speak Danish fluently. (Sound familiar?) They need to show that they are “economically self-sufficient” for more than four years before they can sign on as citizens. You need to pass a “current events test” which is given in Danish. And if you have a criminal record it had better be in the distant past.

And this is in one of the biggest social welfare states in the world. Will American liberals be criticizing them for these defensive measures the same way the scream and set their hair on fire if someone in the United States suggests that immigrants speak English or not be a criminal before we let them in? Somehow I doubt it, but Denmark is apparently learning what actually happens when the hordes show up at your gates. Pay attention, folks. This show is coming to an American state near you some time soon.