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Expats get a sweet welcome and some helpful hints from high places during the city’s official welcome
City Hall pancakes are normally reserved for heads of state, visiting dignitaries and world champion sports teams.
But on Monday afternoon the sugary sweet capital crêpes were dished up for another group the city is looking to make feel at home here – expatriates.
Jakob Hougaard, Deputy Mayor for Integration, welcomed the crowd of about two hundred foreign residents to the ‘Welcome to Denmark’ event and to their new city.
‘You’re part of the story of Copenhagen,’ he said. ‘I know that not every day is going to be a fairy tale here, but the story you are going to participate in is about the city of today.’Statistically, Denmark is good at attracting highly qualified professionals that are in high demand, according to Katia Østergaard of the Expat in Denmark network, who also spoke during the welcome. The challenge, she said, is retaining them. Some 60 percent choose to leave after only a short stay.
While taxes were the biggest complaint for people moving here, she said the organisation was ‘surprised’ by the second and third most commonly mentioned problems: lack of social contact and the lack of a social network.‘That tells us that we are quite tough to get to know personally. On the street we can be helpful and at work we can be social, but when it comes to personal lives expats find themselves facing a challenge.’
After a year of living in Denmark, breaking the social barrier still eludes Joaquin Renderio of Portugal, even though he said he felt welcome here.
‘Foreigners ask me all the time if I’ve made friends with Danes yet – and I have to say no. If I think about it, I might have one. Maybe it’s a problem of different cultures though.’
