In the news: Foreigners feel un-welcome in Denmark

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Comment by Daisy on October 4, 2009 at 4:46pm

I had given Denmark a 2nd chance and I still feel so unhappy here! I know that this is only my problem...I should not have done it.

Comment by Bunty on April 3, 2009 at 10:25am

I must agree with this article. Danes are nice and polite. But it comes to welcoming foreigners they are a step back compare to other countries. I think sweden is bit more better than Denmark. But yeah. I am happy living here and i kinda have my social life. Good going Life

Comment by David Featherston on April 3, 2009 at 9:13am

Hmm. 50-70 years behind the times in terms of integration. This assumes that Danes do things the same way - along the same path or along a parallel path - to The American Way. And it is quite clear to me that they do not.
As for Danes becoming increasingly xenophobic, I can only agree. But this is world-wide, based - as always - on increased distrust born of ignorance. The media makes much more advertising money from fear, crisis, and catastrophe than from analysis, debate, and useful information.
The question remains, though, Are Danes less open and friendly to foreigners than other nations? I think they tend to be more culturally protective than countries that are/were world powers. There is more similarity of attitude between the Dutch and the Danes to foreigners than between Danes and Englishmen. I can hardly wait to move to China to test my theory!

Comment by Kate Stones on March 28, 2009 at 3:29pm

I moved to Denmark knowing that I would need to integrate & adapt. I have gone out of my way to learn about Danish culture, history etc. However, I have never felt welcome here. People are polite but I've tried to make friends with little success. After over 3 years of living here, I've not managed to make one single friend. My Danish is not good but I can manage enough to communicate. Whenever I do speak Danish, I'm always either corrected or laughed at. Xenophobia is alive & well here. :-(

Comment by Karim Alva Ganem on February 25, 2009 at 9:58pm

I would say...it also depend if you are married with a Dane -Which is my case-. Dificult to get friends...Yes, but not imposible. Comming from a very warm country like Mexico was a real shok to live in Denmark in the begining, but once you get to know the sistem, it just get easy...For me it has been quiet easy to deal with the danes.

I guess also depend of the area you are living in. I live in Jylland and I have found people here very warm...Not enough to be friend of all of them, but at least I don´t feel not welcome.

Of course I miss the warming of mexicans and most of all, I miss the social life, but when you come to Denmark you have to be prepare to start thinking individually...No complains about it...I am enjoying my life here.

Comment by kay on February 21, 2009 at 8:24pm

Denmark can be a lonely place for foreigners, not only for the new expats, but also for the ones who have been here a long time. My experience is that it’s hard to make friends in DK, because pretty much most of them have already their circle of friends – from childhood, school, etc., and for a new foreign friend to come in requires trojan horse of some kind *smile*. But once you establish a friendship with a Dane, they are your friend for life - not fickle! In my ten years living here, I finally succeeded in making three friendships and a few acquaintances.


Getting over the hurdle of the language is another thing. Even though I speak Danish very well, yet for the most part, I sensed that Danes aren't willing to hear their language accented by others. They make sure to correct the person and/ or pretend that they didn’t undertsand you, then comes the usual questions ‘hvad ser du?' to reinforce that inner feeling that one really doesn't belong, even though I live here for a long time. Not keeping in mind that the vowels (o-y-) aren’t natural to others in the same way that the (th -as in three & Z- Zulu) is not natural to Danes, so what’s the fuss? That’s beyond me. I reckon it stems from a bit of nationalism.

Comment by Richard Osborne on February 17, 2009 at 8:30pm

HI Christina, in some ways I agree with Cain but in others I feel he is out of place. I think in many respects if you choose to move to a new country, you should learn the language, try and adopt the country's mode of thinking, however, in Denmark, it isn't that easy. The language school I went to had little or no curriculum, the teachers changed every week and becuase of the number of nationalities in class, we would only get to speak maybe 2 complete sentences of danish every hour and a half or so.
When you go to the Kommune here, all your documentation is in Danish rather than country of choice as it is in Australia. Advice is only given in danish so if your danish isn't that good,.....well you're kind of stuck.
Also when I lost my job at Danish Crown the union were of no help at all and were very fast to penalise and quarantine me for things that I simply did not understand. No quarter was given so it was not until i threatened them with legal action that they began to be of some help.
I guess in short,...as there is no 'duty of care' law in Denmark Danes can pretty much tell as much or as little as they choose and it's up to you to find out teh rest......however, if you don't even know where to start, you're in all sorts of trouble. So in that regard I agree with Mr Cain
In a social atmosphere, it's true that most people will speak danish rather than english, but there's nothing wrong with that, I've found that Danes love it when we try although they laugh like hell when we masticate the language. ( must be part of that black humour) but in a social situation, I feel that as a guest in Denmark I should try to follow along as best I can until i get really stuck and then ask if it's okay if I change to english,.....
I think the hardest part of integration though, is making solid friendships, Danes are very deep private people and while they will let you in so far, there is a very solid border that they wont let you cross and for someone who is open,...like an aussie or an american, that can often be seen as being snubbed.

Comment by Grace Y. on February 10, 2009 at 9:16pm

Christina, I cannot agree more with James Cain.
Generally, the more different a foreigner is from a dane, the harder it is for him/her to feel at home in Denmark. I feel that Integration in Denmark is very hard. It is not enough to learn the language, be polite, pay taxes, be law abiding. It requires a foreigner to drop their own way of life, and simply BE danish.

It is also very hard to make friends out of Danes. It is easy to say Hello and smile but anything beyond that is tough. Most Danes leave work promptly to go home to their families. Foreigners tend to be friends with other foreigners.

What can you do as a Dane to help? I think speaking up and creating awareness in other Danes will help. This is especially true for danes who live in a small shells and cannot see another way of life or see other cultures as being inferior. For example, many a times, I see one foreigner in a party. being new to Denmark, he doesn't speak danish and all the danes around him start to speak danish. You have 2 choices. You can say "this is denmark and we speak danish here" or you can say "we're a good host and let's make our foreign friend part of the conversation". I have met both types of Danes and you do not have to guess who are the ones I invite to my home for Malaysian food. :-)