The asylum debate – indeed the entire discussion of immigration
– has seemingly been dominated by fear mongers and naysayers, but
columnist Michael Booth argues that the tide is starting to turn thanks
to the acceptance and tolerance of good-hearted Danes.
Do you know what? I think I am beginning to sense a deep
sea-change (as opposed to a deep-sea change - I’m no seismologist) in
the immigration/asylum debate here in Denmark. It may just be hopeful
thinking on my part, of course, but finally, at last, the good guys - by
which I mean the majority of ordinary Danes - are fighting back against
the fear-mongering, power-hungry, opportunistic politicians.
Finally, at last, a positive message about immigration is beginning to
gain traction in the conventional media, as well as on social media, a
message which is being backed up by reliable statistics that prove not
only that Denmark needs immigration, indeed that its very economic
future relies on immigration, but that the majority of Danes are well
aware of this and are more open to foreigners than the popular media
myth has it.
Along with numerous reports
from respected economic institutions in the last few days that detail
precisely the economic benefits to a country of immigration (and which
prove, for instance, that immigration does not result in lower pay for
indigenous workers, and that immigrants do not take the jobs of Danes
who are willing to work), there have also been encouraging reports of
grass roots activities right here in Denmark.
Last week, for instance, Politiken reported from the Sønderborg municipality in Jutland,
where a group of locals had managed to overcome their anxiety at the
news that they would be receiving 200 Syrian asylum seekers by taking
the trouble to get to know, and to an extent embrace, them.
A voluntary group of locals in the town of Nordborg have taken things
into their own hands and set up a support group for the Syrian men -
they are mostly men, with a handful of women - who have been temporarily
quartered in their town prior to being permanently housed elsewhere
across the country.
“There was a concern
about what type of people they were,” said the leader of the volunteer
group, unemployed local man Martin Zeissler. “Were they dangerous? Were
they from Isis? That racist gene that I reckon all people have in part,
sprang up in me.”
Zeissler decided to hold a
local meeting to discuss the new arrivals, but instead of the meeting
turning into a NIMBY-fest - an excuse to gather the pitchforks and
torches - a dialogue commenced between the locals and the new arrivals.
“We asked what they needed,” Zeissler told Politiken. “And they said,
‘We want to learn Danish, we want to integrate, we want to know how to
live here, and want to get to know some people’.”
Contrary to some locals’ fears, the Syrians were, in the main,
well-educated - dentists, doctors, engineers, hairdressers. Soon, other
locals were joining the welcoming team: “It is very simple, as far as I
am concerned,” local woman Dorthe Mikkelsen told the newspaper. “In our
family we have always said that you should only support and meet others
with an open heart.”
Of course, not all the
locals were so open, and various scurrilous rumours began to emerge
about the Syrians (that they started a fight in a supermarket, for
instance), all of which were soon exposed as fiction by smart use of
social media. So, these days, when the Syrians are shopping in the local
Netto, Nordborgers help show them how to weigh their groceries. A
football team has been formed and locals have arranged Danish language
classes and collected clothes and computers for the Syrians. In short,
the asylum seekers are being prepared better for the time when they are
distributed across Denmark by this voluntary group than they are by the
well-meaning but under-resourced local authorities.
The Politiken article was titled ‘The Miracle of Nordborg’, but do you
know what I think? This was no miracle. It was simply a matter of
decent Danes, the silent majority as opposed to the hectoring
mouth-breathing trolls who have managed to dominate the debate for far
too long, doing the decent thing, just as the majority would do were
they confronted with equally decent people from another country who were
desperately in search of a sanctuary and a second chance.
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