Wednesday, my Migrants, Minorities, and Multiculturalism class went to the Danish Red Cross Asylum Center headquarters. See, the state of Denmark employs the Røde Kors to run its asylum centers, which are home (plus school and community center and soup kitchen and various other things) to would-be immigrants to Denmark live while their applications for asylum are processed. Which, in most cases, become some indeterminate period of time because when 90-plus percent of their applications are turned down but they refuse to return to their countries of origin. And most of the countries of origin in question don't exactly have an extradition agreement with Denmark just now, as they're Iraq, Afghanistan, and the like. So the asylum seekers stay at the centers for years, until they manage to get actual permission to be somewhere or Denmark manages to get an extradition agreement out of the country of origin, which would send however many quasi-resettled people back to a war zone, albeit one that according to EU standards isn't a state that's actively prosecuting them as individuals.
We spoke in small groups to a few men, from Iraq and Algeria. Norell and I questioned Salim, a middle-aged Iraqi who left the country for Jordan with his family in 2002 after repeatedly being taken in for interrogations. He had a history of being involved with the Communists, but it sounded like the Baathists mostly didn't like his active brother and uncle, who both managed to get out, too. Salim's family stayed in Jordan while he tried to get into Denmark properly, which he couldn't (see above), and the situation didn't change at all after the 2003 invasion. His wife and children are now living in San Diego, so he's trying to get there, but in the meantime he hasn't seem them in years and has had only limited communication with them because of the distance.
The others' stories aren't that much different. The employees and volunteers we met at the center seemed to do their level best to give the residents (plenty of whom are women and children (unaccompanied in many cases), though most are male and single, apparently) a meaningful life and activities and education and so forth, but when you're caught in political limbo for seven years...
We had a short talk-back as a class after the meetings, and we were all surprised at this sort of "dark side" of the wondrous Danish welfare state we've heard so much about, which seems to be a recurring theme when it comes to questions of migrants and integration. Denmark is an incredibly ethnically homogenous state (something like 90% of people are Danish Danes, if you will) that didn't even really have immigration until the 1970s. Looking at their immigration policy, you can see that the state really just wants everyone to be Danish. Religious freedom and laws against discrimination are there, of course, but so are pledges to conform to certain standards and learn Danish language and culture and so forth. It's an interesting if not quite successful approach; see international headlines about Denmark from the last few weeks if you think a policy like that might be working. (Hint: it's not. Ethnic Danes aren't the ones burning cars and blowing up tanning salons. It's also unfortunate that the mostly-Muslim immigrant youth are living up to some stereotypes.)
On an entirely different note, Dara and I spent an hour or so last night at Club Mambo, which is a salsa club not far from home. It was fun (if slightly awkward)! Neither of us really knows how to salsa, which prompted a pair of friendly Latin American guys to intervene. One was from Ecuador and one from Argentina; they both work for Mærsk in Panama and were here for training. Good times, nothing too strange, and we looked slightly less silly than we might've on our own.
Tonight, after a day of working (this upcoming week is pre-spring break midterm craziness for everyone), Dara and I attempted to see "Juno" (in English with Danish subtitles) but due to some confusions that I won't get into, we ended up at "Things We Lost In The Fire." Which was good, but less merry. On the upside, we can now check "See a movie at the 'candy palace'" off of our ever-shortening to-do list!
God nat, all.
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