Earlier this year, a reporter went to Denmark to discover why the United Nations judged it the happiest country on earth. The answer she found: trust. “If we agree on something, you would live up to that,” one Dane told her. Put simply, Danes have faith in one another.

Can that trust be expanded? An influx of migrants from Muslim countries has brought people who did not grow up riding bicycles everywhere or meticulously tending to immaculate gardens – in other words, being “Danish.” These newcomers also have other traditions, such as headscarves for women. And while crime has fallen broadly in Denmark, organized crime, drug-related offenses, and crime against public officials have increased, a US State Department report notes. The uptick has stoked fears.

So Denmark is rolling out new “ghetto laws.” One requires that children in high-immigrant areas be separated from their families for at least 25 hours a week for instruction in Danish values, as The New York Times reports. Another could double punishment for crimes in “ghettos.”

Denmark’s struggle is the West’s struggle. On one hand, that struggle can be cast as a battle to maintain treasured national traditions and values against onrushing demographic tides. But there’s a different view, too. The larger challenge of migration is the struggle to build a bigger “us” – to find a trust that extends beyond ethnic identities or spots on a map. Denmark has become a part of this test. To the degree that it can find a more universal basis for its trust, it can share its happiness with the world.  

Here are our five stories for the day, including a glimpse at the meaning of protests in Iran, a message for foreign students in the United States, and the latest installment in the Monitor’s solutions-journalism collaboration.