Terry & Me: Seeking Asylum in Denmark

I've made a few critical comments about Denmark's protectionist immigration policy, so I feel I should explain before I go much further.  Denmark restricted their laws on asylum a few years ago when the government switched hands from the more liberal Social Democrats to the more nationalistic Danish People's Party.  It hasn't always been so strict: before recent economic turbulence, Denmark's booming economy welcomed new sources of labor and the borders were relatively open.  [It was during that time that my host family came here.]  The main arguments against immigration are very similar to what you hear for restricting Mexican immigration, but are more widespread: immigrants (refugees) exploit the welfare system, they can't integrate into a liberal and liberated society (most immigrants are Muslim), they threaten the fragile existence of a "Danish" identity, etc etc.  It's extremely difficult to be granted asylum--after which point you are a legally-recognized refugee--and the process is very slow.  Some asylum-seekers wait years to hear a verdict, and in the meantime are forced to live on welfare in asylum centers (they are not permitted to work).  To be granted refugee status, you must have proof of persecution that threatens your individual person, official documentation preferred.  How many people fleeing Afghanistan do you think remember to grab the paperwork that proves their lives are at at stake?  How many of those papers do you think survive the journey that many people make on foot?

For my Migration & Identity core class, I worked with an asylum-seeker from Bangladesh, who I will call Terry, to write an article for the New Times newspaper based at the Danish Red Cross.  Our collaboration started off slowly because Terry had been experiencing some depression and was also fasting for Ramadan.  I didn't truly understand the challenges he was facing until I met Terry in person.  He is extremely affectionate, cheerful, extroverted man.  When I asked how he liked Denmark, he immediately wrinkled his nose and commented on how solemn everyone is.  This simple gesture gave me a huge insight into how much he missed the openness of his own culture and his dislike of the formality of Danish society. I visited the New Times office once and, instead of settling behind separate computers, we chatted about our article over coffee and chocolate (he jokingly told me in an email that his biggest talents were eating and sleeping, so we figured we would put one of them to good use).  I just use this as a reminder that most of the people that uproot their lives to seek asylum in Denmark probably have a very good reason.

For me, one really rewarding part of this project was finding the common ground between a foreign exchange student and a foreign asylum-seeker.  Although we came to Denmark for very different reasons and have different projected lengths of residence here, we both can commiserate about the rainy weather, the bland food, and the fact that our families are far away in distant time zones.  Terry told me that one big culture shock here in Denmark is that he had to learn to cook for the first time!  Normally a wife, sister, or mother would cook for the man in Bangladesh.  I told him that in the U.S., it was normal for both the man and woman to cook, since women were expected to work as well (I tried to keep my Wellesley indignation at a minimum).  I still need a lot of help learning though since I’ve always lived with a family or at college with a meal-plan option, so he invited me over to the asylum center one day so he could teach me how to cook.  How wonderfully strange it would be for a Bangladeshi man to be teaching an American girl how to cook in a Danish kitchen.

On the last day of our project, I finally asked Terry how he came to be in Denmark.  He told me he was involved in a controversial political organization in Bangladesh that lobbied to bring the man-made constitution more in line with the holy Quran.  According to Terry, the government framed this group for at least one act of terrorism and then painted the entire membership as extremist.  They then used this as license to hang and shoot 15 of the leaders, and to kill as many as 150 of the others.  Terry said they came to his home while he was at work, so he fled and hid elsewhere in Bangladesh for a year, and then lived in India before coming to Denmark to seek asylum.  He sees his relocation as temporary, in the hopes that a new government in Bangladesh will make the country safe for him again, but is trying to seek asylum so he can have a life in the meantime.  I was slightly surprised by his political affiliation, since such an organization would be regarded as fundamentalist right-wing in the United States.  His story made me realize that, even if he may not be persecuted in Denmark for his beliefs, he will certainly not be accepted.  I think he is aware of that but really has no other options if he wants to live openly with a legal right to reside and work outside of Bangladesh.  He had his final interview with the Danish government almost two weeks ago and I haven't heard whether or not his asylum was granted, so I'm just hoping for the best.