Batulo is originally from Somalia but came to Denmark when she was 11 years old, and has lived in Vollsmose since. Batulo is one of the local hosts at the project. In 2004 Batulo spent her holiday in the USA, where she particularly socialized with Somalian immigrants. From the first day, Batulo and the American participant Leona exchanged thoughts and impressions of the USA and Denmark. Batulo writes:

Comparing Denmark and the USA?

The first day at the project ‘Global Views of Vollsmose’ I had a talk with Leona, which reminded me of my trip to the USA and brought me to reflect on the pros and cons of life in Denmark and America

Ways around integration:
One Friday in 2004 I went for a holiday in the USA. Before that I didn’t know much about life there. I was very excited to see what life there would offer and if I could get through without feeling homesick. During my stay I did not get to know a lot about how ‘blacks’, ‘whites’, ‘Arabs or Muslims’, ‘Latinos’ conditions of life is in the states, but I’ve got a pretty good picture of how life is for Somalian immigrants.

I’ve noticed that the Somali community in the USA is more American minded than Somalian immigrants in Denmark. This is because the American society is built by immigrants. ”It is not what America can do for you, but what you can do for America” is a quote of a former American president, which suits that society quite well.
In the States integration is a matter of ‘mutual adaptation’ which is absolutely not the case in Denmark.
Integration in Denmark is a matter of assimilation. The problem with assimilation is that it promotes the gabs and the walls between ethnic Danes and people with another origin than Danish, because the respect for one of the parties’ ways and values is lacking. The culture that they carry with them in different scales is not truthfully acknowledged and therefore they will not feel Danish, as they are constantly told how ‘their type’ does not fit into the Danish ways. They will feel ’useless’ and ’lost’ in the Danish society and following there’s a risk that some will accumulate hostility towards the Danish society expressed in for instance criminality.

The Danes’ aversion towards people of another ethnical origin is understandable, since immigration for example from Muslim countries is a new thing in Denmark. The first people of another ethnical origin was the ‘guest workers’ in the 60s and because the Danes were convinced that they would go back to their ‘homelands’ they didn’t gain any knowledge about the guest workers and the guest workers did not gain any knowledge about the Danes. The guest workers didn’t return to their home countries on the contrary they brought their families to Denmark. It was the following decades attention was paid to how to live together. And now, immigration and integration problems were on the agenda! I know it will take time for the Danes to get use to people of another background than the Danish. Likewise it will be difficult for people of another background than the Danish to enter the Danish society. Therefore, it is very important to secure that the process of good integration goes in a ‘right’ direction, because one can tolerate that ‘it’ takes a long time, but one cannot tolerate that ‘it’ goes in the wrong direction, as it is the case today.

To look different is okay?!
I have always wished to be seen as a normal person, thereby I mean just a woman who lives in Denmark. Fortunately, I have never met anyone that personally harassed me because I look different, because I wear the scarf etc. However, I can’t help being poisoned by the air that I breathe which is filled with prejudices and load of dreadful tails.In Denmark, it is very hard for a ‘scarfed girl’ to get a job that truthfully matches her qualifications. She will be rejected on the basis the people will not fully accept different looking people, wearing scarf for example. In Denmark I would be surprised to see a ‘scarfed girl’ for instance working in the airport, shops etc., while in the USA I witnessed ‘girls with scarfs’ working in a big supermarket – ‘Walt Mart’. Danes tell themselves: ”the best integration takes place on the labour marked”, but I am thinking, how that integration is supposed to happen when one do not make the possibilities to integrate, when one do not give them jobs.

One would think that Somalians in the USA immigrated way earlier to the USA than Somalians in Denmark arrived in Denmark, but it is not so. The first actual wave of Somalian immigrants in the Western countries was in the 90s, when the civil war in Somalia broke loose. Following the status that all Somalian in the West had was refugee. The difference is that Somalians in the USA have passed the category as being refugees a long time ago, while we in Denmark still are stocked with it and everything that includes.
I wish our politicians looked more to countries as the USA, which stands up to resolve the immigration problems instead of looking (up) to countries that haven’t solved their immigration problems such as France, Holland etc.

Last but not least. There is not a Western country with which I would switch Denmark, because Denmark is so delighting when it comes to family values. In the USA for example people are to busy working and other tasks, while we practice//cultivate ‘family life’ much more in Denmark. I must admit, I got homesick about two weeks into my trip to the USA which was due to the hasty life of the Americans They are much more materialistic than us, and one will soon enough be fed up with fast food.

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This article was published in Global Views from Vollsmose’s homepage
Note! The article is translated from Danish.