The Copenhagen Post | Sep 14-20

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Denmark’s Euro 1992 glory to hit big screen

Signs that the church-state bond is continuing to erode

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14 - 20 September 2012 | Vol 15 Issue 37

Villy decides it’s time to go as SF leader

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Denmark’s only English-language newspaper | cphpost.dk AVIAJA BEBE NIELSEN

NEWS

Police are back to patrolling Pusher Street, but the mayor argues it is the wrong approach

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NEWS

Student housing crisis Housing shortage has students camping, couch-surfing and venting their frustration at the authorities

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COPS CARS accused of putting

over the needs of

Ishøj after-school club finds success helping Turkish youth adapt to their new life in Denmark

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BUSINESS

Plan to make Danes working abroad pay Danish taxes is heavily criticised, but minister won’t budge

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Price: 25 DKK

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Immigration workshop gets mixed reviews RAY WEAVER

Tax minister stands firm

9 771398 100009

BIKES Radikale’s workshop looks to solve immigration issues, one post-it note at a time

T

HE OPENING moments of Radikale’s workshop to discuss ways to improve service at Immigration Services were a textbook example of the tensions surrounding the entire national immigration debate. Zenia Stampe, the immigration spokesperson for Radikale and organiser of the workshop, delivered her welcoming remarks in Danish, explaining that she “was not very good at English”. She continued that the workshop itself would be conducted in English in an effort to help any new immigrants

in the room just starting Danish classes to feel more comfortable. At that, a large, older man with greying hair and a goatee exploded from his seat and shouted, in Danish: “We are in Denmark. It is completely wrong that this workshop be conducted in English. We should speak Danish.” The tension the outburst created in the room was palpable, bringing the divide that informs the immigration debate into sharp focus. For the rest of the evening, the facilitators of the workshop explained everything first in Danish and then in English. The shouter was still not satisfied and grumbled continuously that the event should be Danish only. The workshop, which drew about 60 people, was facilitated by Ole Jepsen, a professional consultant whose wife Jenni is an American. Jepsen admitted that he

originally responded to his wife’s frustration with the Danish immigration process by taking the typically Danish “that’s just the way things are” stance. His wife said that if they were in the US, her response to the mountains of indecipherable paperwork, endless waiting times and insane bureaucracy would be to call her congressperson. The Jepsens’ ‘congressperson’ is Stampe. Stampe said that she has received so many emails like Jepsen’s – that paint nightmare scenarios of five and six-hour waits at Immigration Services, unanswered emails and cases going unresolved for months and even years – that she decided to hold a workshop. Her goals were to guage specific complaints and to look for solutions. She said she wants to take those messages

back to her colleagues in parliament to start working to streamline the system. The most often heard suggestion from the workshop participants was that the Immigration Services should be scrapped and started over from scratch, but that idea wasn’t specific enough to make the final list of potential improvements. More concern for peoples’ rights and a sense of security were among the participants’ specific complaints, while free Danish lessons for immigrants was put forward as one thing that is currently working. Reaction to the style and possible outcomes of the process was mixed at best. A young woman in a burka, who didn’t want to be named, said that just

Workshop continues on page 5

nordic food & cocktails in the meatpacking district ...

coctails & club happy hour & dj’s 10 pm fridays & saturdays ...

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