Only in Denmark

URL:  http://ing.dk/artikel/98173-en-fremmed-fugls-guide-til-danskerne-som-kolleger?highlight=udl%E6nding

A foreigner’s guide to Danish workplace

We are good in molding competent young leaders in Denmark but we look down upon someone who does not speak Danish or refuse to put remoulade in the fiskefillet. The guide book is filled with foreigners’ own stories in experiencing Danish working culture.

It is widely known that Denmark is not an easy place to live for a foreigner. The weather is bad, the tax is high and the language is more complicated than old Greek.

It is neither easy to adjust oneself in a Danish workplace, loaded with unwritten rules, whether you are an IT programmer from India or Wind Turbine Engineer from Spain. But the new book called “The worktrotter guide to Denmark” would make it easier for well-educated foreigners – who flood the country lately – to fit into the work culture.

The book is written by a German software engineer named Dagmar Fink who had worked on the guide for two and half years through her own experience and interviews with other expatriates.

A lot of unwritten rules

When Fink came to Denmark to work some project leader in IBM in autumn 2006, she felt that she wasn’t welcomed with open arms.

“Everyone has told me that the Danes had relaxed attitude so I expected that everything would go smoothly and painless. But what had surprised me the most was that all of these unwritten rules – the ones that you should comply with”

The book was released in April. Below are several examples from Fink’s own experiences and other expats at Danish workplaces:

Speak Danish, please!

Integration has become a hot topic recently in Denmark and there has been talk that well-educated foreigners are more than welcomed in the country. If one is headhunted to fill a position in Denmark, so it is absolutely ok that one is NOT able to speak Danish. However, things can quickly change when one is looking for a new job here – suddenly, Danish fluency is required.

This is not how we do it in Denmark, my little friend

Native Danes are not aware of certain rules, but they are actually holding a list of what is right and what is wrong. If a foreigner put the wrong toppings on a smørrebrød (open faced sandwich), then one would be corrected immediately and treated like small children.

Workplace is not the place to find friends.

Most Danes draw a clear line between working lives and private lives. When the clock shows 5pm, the Danes go home to pick up their children from the kindergarten or disappear to go to the cinema with their partners. It’s making it more difficult to make friends in working place, especially when one is a  foreign enginer and would like to meet with the colleagues for a cup of coffee outside working hours.

Young managers do exist

It’s rare to find managers below 60 years old in Paris or München, but it’s not something extraordinary here in Denmark. One can become a manager even before he / she is 40 years old.

Weekly Working hours are kept under 40

The 37 hours per week rule is well-known in Danish workplace. This rule also applies for so -called career people. It is important to find “balance” between working lives and private lives that it’s actually easy to do so compared to workplaces in other countries. If one stays in the office long on Tuesday afternoon, so one gets to go home earlier in another day.

We are technologically advance
Everything in Denmark can be done through a computer: booking a meeting room, searching tax information or making an appointment with the hairdresser. Almost all workplaces in Denmark are equipped with modern computers and fast internet connection.

URL : http://cphpost.dk/news/local/87-local/46580-police-brutality-complaints-after-church-raid.html

Many protestors and one Iraqi refugee accuse police of brutality following raid on refugee shelter

The raid on Brorson’s Church and the ensuing violent clashes between protesters and police have prompted more than 30 people including one of the refugees to complain about police brutality.

Andam Farzil, 19, was arrested in the raid on Brorson’s Church last week but has since been released he is not one of those facing repatriation.

Speaking with Politiken newspaper, Farzil confirmed reports of police using batons and said the beating continued inside the police bus.

‘We were yelling that they should leave us in peace and that we didn’t want to go back to Iraq. Then they told us to be quiet and started hitting us with batons,’ said Farzil.

The Iraqi’s account of the night’s events was just one of many complaints of police brutality during the raid which saw protestors clash with police who were trying to remove the Iraqis seeking refuge in the church.

The voluntary support group for the refugees, Kirkeasyl, has received at least 30 complaints of police brutality.

A spokeswoman said people were contacting the group to find out how to make a formal complaint against the police.

Copenhagen Police spokesman, Flemming Steen Munch, was surprised by the allegations. The operation had passed relatively peacefully, according to him.

He did not rule out the possibility that officers had been forced to push some of those arrested back into their seats if they had behaved in a troublesome manner.

The raid on the church is estimated to have caused 70,000 kroner worth of damage. The church organ was badly damaged after an Iraqi climbed up on it and threatened to commit suicide. The alter, crypt doors and some chairs were also damaged.

Brorson’s Church vicar Per Ramsdal blamed police for the damage and said if the operation had been carried out in a more peaceful manner, the Iraqis would not have reacted in such a terrified manner.

Of the 19 rejected asylum seekers arrested with a view to forcible repatriation, 18 have had their detention extended and two of the cases have been referred to the High Court.

According to police, there are currently 40 Iraqis in custody and a delegation of Iraqi authorities will visit Denmark next week to clarify the identities of those being sent back to Iraq.

Watch the video

URL: http://cphpost.dk/news/international/89-international/46619-no-apology-from-denmark.html

Danish prime minister refuses to apologise for ‘experiment’ involving Greenlandic children in the 1950s

Denmark’s current leader, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, has described an experiment in which children were removed from their parents and indoctrinated with Danish values, as ‘unfortunate’ but neglected to apologise.

In 1951, a group of Greenlandic children were taken from their homes to be ‘re-educated’ in Denmark. They were to return home as a new ‘elite’ of Danish-minded Greenlanders. But, most of them ended up in orphanages and being put up for adoption. Many of them developed social problems and some died young.

Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s comments come after the Greenlandic member of the Danish parliament, Juliane Henningsen, directly asked him if he would apologise for the controversial experiment in the 1950s.

Henningsen also asked if Denmark intended to pay compensation to the victims.

The prime minister gave no answer in his reply as to whether an apology or compensation were forthcoming. He did however describe the matter as ‘unfortunate’.

‘Both Greenlandic society and the relationship between Greenland and Denmark have been through a profound and positive development in the period from the 1950s until today. But there are also events that we have to admit have been unfortunate. The Greenlandic children’s stay in Denmark belongs to that category,’ Løkke Rasmussen said.

URL http://www.panhumanism.com/letter_to_obama.php

Dear Mr. President Elect!

We respectfully request a few moments of your precious time for an important message. Thank you!

In the spirit of optimism, and the courage to hope for real change which has been kindled throughout the world by the historic election in the United States, we hope to bring to your personal attention, and to the awareness of the American public the distressing state of affairs in our own highly privileged corner of the world.

We wish to express our deep concern at the incremental rise of racism and the use of racist propaganda in mainstream Danish politics over the past decade.

Ethnic and religious minorities are demonized and marginalized. Discrimination and hate-filled rhetoric reminiscent of anti-Semitic propaganda of the 1930′s has become an accepted part of the Danish political debate.

This especially affects African ethnic minorities, Arabian ethnic minorities and Muslim religious minorities.

The following are quotes from elected members of the Danish and European Parliaments:

Danish member of the European Parliament, Mogens Camre:

»Let me state it clearly: Muslims ought to live in Muslimland – and that’s not here«

»There is no place for Islam in Europe and our first priority must be to repatriate the Muslims«

Member of the Danish Parliament, Pia Kjaersgaard:

On immigrants from developing countries living in Denmark: »Thousands upon thousands of people who spiritually, culturally and with regard to civilization, are plainly still in the year 1005«

Member of the Danish Parliament, Jesper Langballe:

»The Old Testament is an altogether Christian book which the Jewish religion has misused, with no actual right to do so«

Member of the Danish Parliament, Soeren Krarup:

»It is absolutely grotesque that people from Somalia, Sri Lanka and the Far East should be able to call themselves refugees in Denmark«

»Islam is a new totalitarian plague sweeping Europe«

Member of the Danish Parliament, Martin Henriksen:

»Islam has since its inception been a terrorist movement«

»Islam is by its very nature an evil, which must and will be combatted«

Member of the Danish Parliament, Kristian Thulesen Dahl:

»In many ways we are anti-Muslim«

The quotes above are not simply the usual xenophobic rantings of minor internet based extremists. They are the words of Danish politicians popularly elected to the European and Danish Parliaments with one thing in common – they are all members of the same political party: The Danish People’s Party (Dansk Folkeparti).

Sometimes members of this party are even more outspoken:

»All Muslims must be thrown out of Denmark« (Vagn Eriksen)

»All Muslims must leave Denmark. It’s a harsh thing to say, some of them are human beings, but how are we to sort them out?« (Ib Krog Hansen)

In 2001 the Danish People’s Party’s Youth Organization ran this campaign in posters and ads:

YOUR DENMARK? A multiethnic society with: - Mass rapes - Crude violence - Insecurity - Supression of women - Forced marriages IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT? Do something – be a member of THE DANISH PEOPLE’S PARTY’S YOUTH ORGANIZATION - A Danish future

The same year the Danish People’s Party published this book:

THE FUTURE OF DENMARK Your country Your choice …

In May 2008 the Danish People’s Party ran this campaign in all major Danish newspapers:

ALLAH IS EQUAL BEFORE THE LAW SUBMISSION GIVE US BACK DENMARK

The Danish People’s Party is demonizing minorities with the same rhetoric that was once used to demonize Jews and Afro-Americans, distorting their intentions and beliefs. Yet they have been the most influential political party of the past decade, dictating policy on ethnic and religious minorities.

Let us not forget how the Nazis seduced the German people into hating the Jews – by constant claims that Jews were a threat to everybody else.

Julius Streicher, Nazi Propagandist, in 1925:

»Jewish values and rules of conduct permit and even necessitate that which is forbidden for the non-Jew because of his Christian belief. The Jew must reproduce, deceive, bear false witness and when expedient, he may even kill people«

Pia Kjaersgaard, leader of the Danish People’s Party, in 2000:

»The Quran teaches Muslims it is acceptable for them to lie and deceive, cheat and swindle as much as they like«

Hermann Esser, Nazi writer on Jews, in 1939:

»They come as ‘foreigners,’ as ‘beggars’, slinking and groveling, with false humility and dishonest respect. Once they have swindled their way to something, they become thieves and bloodsuckers«

Mogens Camre, MEP for the Danish People’s Party, in 1999:

»Muslims come with a beggar’s staff in their hand, but as soon as they’re in from the cold it becomes a stick to beat us with«

This is how they are stereotyping and stigmatizing people, by demonizing and denouncing a minority in general as a menace to society.

We are not accusing the Danish People’s Party of Nazi-sympathies, but history has repeatedly showed how quickly this kind of propaganda can take on a critical momentum of its own when used by influential politicians to stigmatize ethnic or religious groups.

And we are not the only ones to criticize the political development in Denmark over the last decade, the international media has been here too:

The Washington Post: »A wave of anti-Muslim sentiment has bolstered far-right parties (…) The changing mood has found its fullest political expression here in Denmark, where an anti-immigrant party won 12 percent of the vote (…) Its campaign posters featured a picture of a young blond girl and the slogan: ‘When she retires, Denmark will have a Muslim majority’.« (March 29, 2002).

Financial Times: »While most Danes would be loath to admit it, there are some uncomfortable parallels between the new measures and some of Mr. Le Pen’s stated policies.« (May 3, 2002).

Neue Zürcher Zeitung: »By court order, the head of the DPP, Pia Kjaersgaard, may not be labeled ‘racist’, but she keeps things humming in her own party’s ranks with frequent xenophobic utterances (…) referring to Sweden’s relatively open policy toward foreigners, Kjaersgaard remarked that the Stockholm regime was perfectly free to let Swedish cities become Scandinavian Beiruts, replete with mass rapes, revenge killings and clan wars.« (June 19, 2002).

The Guardian: »On the same day as it takes over the EU’s prestigious rotating presidency and begins to broker a common EU asylum policy, the new laws will turn Denmark, overnight, into one of the world’s most hostile places for asylum seekers.« (June 29, 2002).

International Herald Tribune: »Denmark has in the past decade become one of the most anti-immigrant countries in Europe, with Muslims the object of great hostility. It was a Danish newspaper that, in 2005, published the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that flared into an international crisis. A major factor has been the rise of the openly anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party …« (November 26, 2007).

In November 2008 the American ambassador to Denmark, James P. Cain, suggested that Denmark might learn something from the United States:

»Americans in some point of our history decided that it was more important to have an ordered, integrated, diverse, peaceful, secure, harmonious society – harmonious racially, harmonious from an ethnic perspective and harmonious religiously – than it was to each have the individual right to insult our neighbours, to incite violence, to draw offensive cartoons just for the heck of it.« (Deadline, November 12, 2008)

Mr. President Elect. We honestly have no idea if this message will reach you – but we have the audacity of hope.

And perhaps the Danish government has learned a lesson or two from the American election in 2008?

Therefore we sincerely hope that you will take the opportunity to raise these pivotal matters with the Danish government and point out the danger of espousing the policies of the Danish People’s Party. We believe the government will listen to you if you choose to criticize the influence of the Danish People’s Party when the opportunity presents itself. Thank you!

Yours truly
Jacob Holdt and Rune Engelbreth Larsen

URL: http://www.nyidanmark.dk/en-us/coming_to_dk/familyreunification/spouses/spouses.htm

Requirements relating to you and your spouse/partner

• You must both be over the age of 24.
• You must live together at the same address in Denmark when your residence permit is granted.
• Your combined attachment to Denmark must be greater than your combined attachment to any other country. Read more about the attachment requirement

Furthermore, your spouse/partner in Denmark:

• must reside permanently in Denmark.
• must have accommodation of adequate size at his/her disposal. Read more about the housing requirement.
• must be able to support him/herself and you. In most cases, this requirement will be met if your spouse/partner has not received public assistance under the terms of the Active Social Policy Act (lov om aktiv socialpolitik) or the Integration Act (integrationsloven) for at least 12 months prior to the application being processed by the Immigration Service.
• must post DKK 60,011 (2009 level) in bank-backed collateral to cover any public assistance paid to you by your municipality after you relocate to Denmark. Read more about the collateral requirement.
• must not have been convicted of violent acts against a former spouse/partner within a period of 10 years prior to your application being processed.

URL http://politiken.dk/newsinenglish/article740898.ece

Giving support to rejected Iraqi asylum-seekers gives them false hopes and makes them hostages, according to Deputy Chief of Police Hans-Viggo Jensen who is calling for politicians, organisations and civilians who support the Iraqis, to stop their campaigns.

“I actually think they should stop it and refrain from making the rejected asylum-seekers believe that they have a future in Denmark. They are selling a product they cannot deliver and are thus contributing to an escalation of the situation,” says Hans-Viggo Jensen who is responsible for the repatriation of 244 Iraqis whose asylum requests have been rejected.

Support
The first six Iraqis were flown quietly out of the country on Thursday of this week. Among them was 35-year old Mufsal al-Alji whose father, mother and siblings have residence permits and live in the city of Vejle.

Sixty other rejected Iraqis have sought refuge in Brorson’s Church in Copenhagen, with help flooding in to them from well-meaning Danes offering all kinds of assistance from dental care and massage to psychological support. But the Danes should be careful, says Hans-Viggo Jensen. The support makes repatriation more unpleasant for the individual refugee.

“When you fight the decision, you take away their opportunity to help prepare their repatriation. Instead of knowing their departure date and packing their cases, everything will now be taking place on police terms,” says the deputy police chief adding that “a political majority in Parliament” supports the repatriations.

Politics
Jensen’s warning has caused organisations and politicians to accuse police management of choosing sides.

Save the Children Secretary-General Mimi Jacobsen says police interference in the debate is “a new variety of democracy”.

“I can say for sure that the deputy chief of police cannot gag us. It is great that he cares about these people, but if the NGOs did not raise their voices when Denmark is doing something wrong, then I don’t know what we are here for,” she says.

URL: http://cphpost.dk/news/politics/90-politics/46678-obligatory-language-tests-for-foreigners-to-cost-3000-kr.html

Foreigners could be charged 3000 kroner for a mandatory Danish language test from next year

Foreigners seeking residency through family reunification may be required to cough up 3000 kroner for a new mandatory Danish language test, reports Kristeligt Dagblad newspaper.

The ‘Immigration Test’ has been in the works since 2006 with several trial tests and reviews being conducted. It will also be mandatory for all religious preachers seeking residency here.

According to the government’s new budget proposal the final version will be ready form early next year.

In addition to testing language skills, the exam also requires a residency applicant to know facts about Danish culture and society.

Although it has not yet been ratified by parliament, the Liberal-Conservative government’s proposal reportedly has the support of the Danish People’s Party, which is enough to pass it into law.

Marianne Jelved, the Social Liberal integration spokeswoman, was baffled by the cost of taking the test and said her party did not support such immigration procedures.

‘For us it’s more important that Danish residents can live here with their spouses and children,’ she said.

Henriette Kjær, the Conservative immigration spokeswoman, said the test was unlikely to be difficult, rather like mastering ‘tourist Danish’.

But Danish People’s Party MP Jesper Langballe said if the test could cut down the number of immigrants coming to Denmark, then it would serve its purpose.

‘We wouldn’t be sorry if it meant the number of applicants fell,’ he said.

Spouses of Danish citizens who come to Denmark after living in another EU country will be exempt from taking the test.

URL: http://www.geocities.com/alcohol_in_denmark/index.htm

Lower intake of alcohol have isolated youth and destroyed their health.

A survey published February 2008 showed that a long lasting campaign conducted by right wing church fractions had reduced the overall consumption among youth aged 11 to 15. The price however was high. Without the normal tool to socialize and establish networks, youth in larger number had stopped exercising and leave their homes. Instead of partying and dancing they now spend several hours every day in front of their computer. ^[6]

General concern about the long-term effect of lacking exercise have resulted in a public debate about the future expenses, when the youth become adults.

Secondary Denmark have only seen one incident of the high school shootings, which are so widespread across the United States. But if an increased number of the youth tends to isolate themselves, there would be an increased risk of producing shooters.