Nine types of foreigner you might meet in Denmark
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Loading... - Anne Nielsen
- 15 Sep 2022
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The business executive and trailing spouse
After a number of years in their home country with one of Denmark’s biggest international companies – someone like Maersk, Lego or Vestas – this foreigner has now moved or been seconded to head office.
As such, you might not only find them in Copenhagen but also in provincial towns close to where their companies are based, spreading them across much of central Jutland and into Aarhus in the cases of Lego and Vestas.
They do not have long-term goals in Denmark in the same way as other groups because they expect their career progression to take them back home or to another country at some point. They also work in an international environment and are probably already in a stable relationship and have their partner, and possibly children, with them when they get to Denmark. They have a busy professional life.
These factors mean that, despite being highly educated, they don’t learn Danish very quickly, if at all.
If they have children, they might attend an international school. Their partners, who may have had to put their own careers on hold during the Danish sojourn, may be attempting to transfer their own qualifications to work in Denmark or alternatively channel their knowledge and interests into recreational pursuits like creative writing groups for internationals, or networking organisations.
The rootless lover (in Denmark by mistake)
This foreigner is likely to have been on holiday, backpacking, travelling or perhaps working abroad in another country when they fell in love with a Dane.
Neither side of this romance had a life plan set out at the time they met, and they were not tied down by commitments like mortgages or children. The foreigner might have finished their studies and be well into their twenties, but they are young enough to have a crack at moving to another country to start from scratch. They can pick up their career there later (once they’ve learned the language) or just go back home if it doesn’t work out. Right?
This type of foreigner is often unflatteringly referred to as a “sexual refugee” and can sometimes be found working in cafes, bars or pubs where the staff aren’t expected to speak Danish.
This is more likely if they are in Copenhagen or Aarhus where such places are more prevalent. In fact, some may have been baristas or bartenders at such a high level before coming to Denmark that the Danish bar snapped them up, knowing its clientele generally won’t mind being addressed in English by a highly skilled barista.
In some cases, the foreigner settles where they are, builds a network of other non-Danish speaking friends and establishes themselves in their international micro-community. Some stay a while, their relationship comes to a natural end and they return home.
In other cases, the foreigner risks being frozen out of society as they discover the Danish language is far more crucial to living in Denmark than they thought. Meanwhile, their partner is more sensible in their homeland, where they must think about paying their bills and planning for the future, things that weren’t concerns when they were backpacking in the Andes. Read More...
