Educators instead of victims

For almost 100 years the Danish speaking people living south of the border to Germany were depicted and treated as victims to pity. Now the Danish voluntary association, established to help the Danish minority is making a complete U-turn. They want the rest of Denmark to see the minority as role models and the minority to be educators in meeting of cultures and integration.

By Michael Voss/InfoNet

Dalya is born in Yemen, now living with her immigrant family in Denmark. She is studying at a gymnasium (upper secondary school) in Copenhagen. Wienke is born and still living in South Schleswig, northern Germany. As her parents she is considering herself a Dane, studying at the Danish language gymnasium in the German city of Flensburg and speaking both German and Danish fluent.
Last year Dalya and Wienke met twice, once in Copenhagen and once in Flensburg. Dalya brought with her from Copenhagen four other young women with roots in countries like Turkmenistan, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt and Lebanon.
Together with Wienke came five of her friends from the gymnasium.

A vanguard in a globalized World
This hotpot of cultures was organized by the Danish Border Association, who asked the young women to discuss values, identity, what it is to be Dane, and how it is to be bi-lingual or multilingual.
From the two meetings they experienced that they had a lot in common, living as lingual and cultural minorities. They shared an awareness of the strength in being able to shift between identities and languages. They considered themselves to be a vanguard in a globalized world where also citizens of the majority must learn to change between languages and identities.
Together the young women produced a manifesto on “Promoting the positive meeting of cultures”. One of the points of the manifesto read: “A wider knowledge about South Schleswig og and about the Danish minority living there will help enhance the respect of minorities in Denmark.”

The history of The Border Association
From the experience of these meetings The Border Association is now building a squad of young ambassadors, who will be traveling around Denmark. They will participate in classes and make lectures about the experience of the Danish minority. Also local branches will in the years to come focus on such educational activities.
For The Border Association this is a complete U-turn. The association was founded in 1920. This year the border between Denmark and Germany was changed as part of the peace settlement after World War I. The exact place of the border was decided through a referendum, municipality by municipality. Those areas where Danes were in majority became part of Denmark and vice versa. As a result the border was moved considerably to the South, “reuniting” North Schleswig with Denmark as it was called.
But still a considerable minority of Danes lived in Germany, and The Border Association was established to help them and inform the rest of the Denmark of their situation.

Germans as enemies
“Many Danes wanted a bigger part of Germany incorporated into Denmark, and this was an issue until several years after World War II. The basic ideology of The Border Association was animosity against the Germans. It was “a terrible fate” for the Danes living in Germany, so we had to help them preserving their Danish identity and language,” says Knud Erik Therkelsen, general secretary of The Border Association.
One of the main activities was to collect money to support Danish schools, associations, cultural events etc. in Germany.
“But now the people of the Danish minority cannot be seen as victims anymore. Economically they are supported by Danish government funds, and they are treated well by the regional German government of Schleswig-Holstein. That is why we need to change and revitalize The Border Association by focusing on educational activities,” says Knud Erik Therkelsen.

Role models
“The Danish-German border area has been an exploratorium in meeting of national cultures for centuries. And we have made all the mistakes that can be made, including killing each other. But we have learned to live together, and I hope this can show the way for others.
Of course a minority-culture that has existed in the region for centuries is not the same as a minority of refugees and immigrants. But still there are a lot of similarities. That is why Denmark can learn how to integrate other cultures from the experience of the Danish minority in Germany.
And the young Danes from South Schleswig can be role models. They can help the immigrants and refugees to consider themselves not as problems but as people with special resources in being by-lingual and bi-cultural. And it works. That is our experience from this new kind of educational activities,” tells Knud Erik Therkelsen.