The Danish government has made a big show about how their latest "smart" immigration law will make ease the processing of qualified and hard-working immigrants trying to get into Denmark. But what has really changed is that foreign spouses of Danes now have to meet the same criteria as green-card applicants, and a spate of deportations has shown us that yet again, what this government says and does are far from the same.
JP published a wrenching letter from the parents-in-law of a Japanese woman, who decided to leave her Danish husband and return to her homeland after local immigration rejected her long string of applications and appeals. This despite the fact that the woman's teaching qualification has been accredited in Denmark, and that she has learned Danish, and is fluent in English. She also has relevant work experience. All this because her husband sustained a work injury several years ago and went on social aid in order to be rehabilitated. She in turn, though fully capable, was barred from working in Denmark while her application was processed.
Another example of how twisted and inhumane the Danish immigration law still is. It's not that way by accident - despite everything the government says, they still want to discourage Danes from marrying abroad. They can't say so in as many words, so they've laid out a veritable immigration minefield around Denmark, full of hidden clauses and bizarre gotchas. Once again, someone got unlucky while traversing it. Whatever the Danish government claims about its sincere motives to make it easier for foreigners, experience shows that's all a charade. Why do I claim that? Because to date Denmark has had numerous political scandals : ministers' heads have rolled because of things like undisclosed loans and mismanagement of food quality, and the government has almost collapsed because of funding discrepancies for hospitals and a failure to log trivial expenses, but there has never ever been even a whiff of a scandal over immigrant inhumanity, and the Danish government is driven by the fear of scandal. Next time you hear a Dane ducking this issue by insisting that the government is out of touch with the morality of its people, you throw that back at them.
I can't help say this - historically, this level of inhumanity, this kind of evil has been changed only through violence, and I use the word evil here because I don't know how else to describe such an insidious attitude towards others. Something takes a society so far that blood is spilled, and it finally wakes up and realizes how lost it is. The fall of Nazism, apartheid, segregation in the USA; the moral impetus that brought about honest and heartfelt change to those systems came through violence and the threat of further violence. So where is Denmark heading? Will there be a violent climax, or will Danes simply bury this under the surface where it can linger like India's caste system? My guess is the latter. Either the current government goes on trying to dress up its laws in civilized clothes, or the left-wing coalition wins and rolls the policy back just a hair, which is about all their voters will permit. Either way, cases like this mean nothing to most Danes, and tomorrow will be business as usual. There is no moral introspection, no lesson learned, and no concept at all of wrong-doing. Denmark, you disgust me.
4 comments:
Amen to the feeling of 'disgust'. Where else would they ask you to pay top skat and pay for your health services anyway. Only from the country that claims to have the best welfare system in the world!
"It is legal to get married in Denmark but illegal to be together". Twisted!
"I can't help say this - historically, this level of inhumanity, this kind of evil has been changed only through violence, and I use the word evil here because I don't know how else to describe such an insidious attitude towards others."
You are taking this so serious. no disresptc but if it is this bad then you should leave, who stays in a country they hate if they can leave? Or is it the not being able to leave and feeling trapped that makes so many in Danmark feel so angry and violent?
"You are taking this so serious." That there caused me to disregard the rest of whatever you said.
As an American, I find the typical Danish response of "love it or leave it--if being an immigrant here is so bad, why not leave?" extremely irritating.
But perhaps you/we should treat the question as a sincere interrogative, instead of simply disregarding it as pure patriotic defensiveness (which I agree it probably is anyways).
Mr. Manky and others most likely have similar tales, whether or not they want to tell them, but here is my answer to the question of how I can be so unhappy here yet still reluctant to just F-off:
I moved here for love of my Danish girlfriend and our newborn daughter. My wife's job was anchored to an office in Copenhagen, whereas mine had a great deal of flexibility. Having spent many satisfying years living amongst both the French and Germans, where I had scores of native friends and a sense of belonging, I figured it would be the same in Copenhagen (if not better, given all the hype of the utopian society, etc.) and packed up enthusiastically.
Two years later, I have met only one or two Danes besides my wife who show occasional interest in getting a beer with me, with whom I am not allowed to speak my fledgling Danish--result: it continues to suck--and who are certainly uninterested in hearing my complaints about their homeland (in contrast to my French and German friends who were the first to bash their native countries, with me often playing devil's advocate).
The rest of my friends are foreigners who complain of the same lackluster social life, in addition to feeling targeted by the obvious Danish ethno-centrism and daily "harmless" xenophobia in popular culture, politics, and media.
So why don't I just pack up and go somewhere else? Because I am not 22 years old anymore, because I have a family here who happen to have Danish passports, and because, please forgive me, I still cling to the idealistic notion that one day this society could end up living up to all the hype.
In the meantime, it's cathartic and possibly even helpful to point out the silliness and destructiveness of the discriminatory policies, to say nothing of all this "we-are-the-world's-most-hyggelig" business.
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