Romanians from Serbia in Denmark

Danish workers, where Vlach women were accused of speeding up the
working processes in order just to get a tiny bonus.
Motivation to work so hard was found primarily in the private realm, in
the prestige game of the Vlach community, where status required the
purchase of a new dress for every dance or wedding (Schierup and Ålund
1986: 102–4).The option of working harder than their Danish colleagues
and earning extra hinged on the ability of Vlach women to leave their
children in the village or in the care of older female relatives, thereby
stressing difference with regard to their Danish colleagues, who were more
dependent on the services of the welfare state. The help provided by the
family network nevertheless had itsprice in terms of increasing the level of
obligations towards the private realm where high levels of hospitalityand
other services were expected in exchange.
One consequence of the heavy burdens placed on them is that a large
number of older women suffer from healthproblems and are now retired.
Being away from the labour market and consigned to the private sphere of
homemakingand childcare obviously implies a degree of withdrawal from
the wider Danish society. In reality, however, many of the older women
primarily worked in industries where the bulk of workers were other
immigrants, 7 for which reason the integrative ‘outcomes’ of being exposed
to the Danish labour marketare likely to have been more limited. Things
are different in the younger generation, as higher levels of education and
language proficiency have contributed to a general shift towards the service
sector. Few, if any,of this generation work in groups with other Vlachs and
being Vlach does not seem to influence their jobsituation.
The trade unions generally play a very positive role for the older men,
who accepted and felt represented bytheir collective-oriented policies and
by the emphasis given to equal rights and worker solidarity, featureswhich
the Danish welfare state had in common with socialist Yugoslavia. The
trade unions also stood up for theirnew members and actively campaigned
against the widespread racist attitudes of some of their other members,
thereby increasing the sense of security of the former. 8 However, these
moreconflictual memories are seldom raised by the migrants, who tend to
emphasise instead their more positive workexperiences.