Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tries such as Denmark are becoming cafeteria plates with dividers keeping ethnic
groups separate.
Immigration can be a major wedge issue—especially in formerly homogenous
nations. Only 40 years ago, there were virtually no foreigners in Denmark. As in
many European countries, part of the population, especially older and more in-
sular Danes, fears immigrants and gravitates to right-wing, racist parties. Mean-
while, progressive Danes—who celebrate a multicultural future—wonder why their
wealthy nation of high-tech, multilingual globalists is still struggling to get along
with their relatively small community of Muslim immigrants. While some Danes
view their growing Muslim minority as a problem, others are willing to see a more
colorful society as an opportunity.
A Muslim Dane catches the changing of her country's guard.
At Copenhagen's City Museum, I met a Pakistani Dane who worked there as a
guide. He spoke Danish like a local and talked earnestly about the exhibit, as if his
own ancestors pioneered the city. Thinking of assimilation, I got emotional. Sur-
prised at being choked up, I was struck by the beauty of a Pakistani Dane as op-
posed to a Pakistani living in Denmark.
