Romanians from Serbia in Denmark

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provided by a Serbian catering firm, leaving the women very few opportunities to displaytheir skills to a wider public. Re-Traditionalising Family Ties? In discussions with younger and older Vlachs, it is evident that strong family ties remain an important issuewithin the group. Much in line with the logics of the multi-generational family, parents feel a strong obligation to support their children well into their adult lives. It is therefore not unusual for young people or couples to live under the same roof as their parents: Most young people prefer not to take out loans to support themselves while they are studying. It’s not like theDanes, who leave it to the young people to support themselves on the state’s study grants and by working. We letthem stay at home until they are 20–25. There they can have a good life and are taken care of (Serbian woman,2008). When a young couple do move to their own flat or house, it is usually located in relative proximity to the parents’ house. Although the couple make use of public day-care facilities,grandparents are expected to play a vital role in the upbringing of the youngest generation. In return the elder generation expect that their children will support them in their old age. However, as socialisation increasingly takes place within Danish institutions, these relations of mutual obligation are likely to become more problematic. For first-generation migrants, it was important for the children to be raised in Serbia by the grandparents andgreat-grandparents (Schierup and Ålund 1986: 52). This reflected an anxiety that the children might become too Danish and forget their Vlach roots and the obligations towards the older generation that are emphasised in Vlachculture. In fact, some of the men in their late-20s present at the gathering mentioned above indicated having spent some years in the care of their grandparents in the village. This is not likely to happen to their own children. Instead, they are
encouraging their children to adopt Danish cultural values and practices, as reflected in their giving Danish first names to their children. The priority of sameness in terms of Danish culture and language has in some instances led to tensions between the generations. One grandfather recounted that he and his wife had been disqualified from playing a central role in the upbringing of their grandchildren because the younger generations felt it imperative that their childrenshould be taken care of by Danish-speaking persons. According to him, this was also why his daughter andson-in-law refused to live in the large house which he had planned as a multi-generational homestead. From the perspective of the younger generation, moving out of the multigenerational homestead provides an opportunity for gaining more terrain within the generational hierarchy and unequal power relations in the Vlach family structure. From Yugoslav to Serb: A Return to ‘Ancient Values’? Given their eagerness to ensure that their children have a high degree of Danish language proficiency, manycouples prefer to speak Danish at home. This is different from many other diaspora groups, for whom the language constitutes one of the most important media in preserving the native culture (see Eastmond 1993). The conscious use of Danish in Vlach homes is widespread among both the younger and the middle-aged generations, and is, surprisingly, also frequent among those who most ardently stress the need to preserve Vlach traditions. The question now is what second language should be passed on to the children. Where Vlaski was the language spoken at home in the first two decades of migration, many parents and grandparents now give priority to Serbian. This issignificant, as it is happening in a period in which the Serbian nation is often regarded with suspicion andantipathy by the Danish public. The new interest in Serbian language and culture is obviously connected to the Vlachs’ shift in national affiliation. Although the new Serbian identity was largely forced upon them, it also contributed to the development of loyalties towards the new homeland, as the nationalist and conservative ideology of Serbia in the 1990s provided justification for a revival of traditional and chauvinist values, which were also popular in
Page 1 and 2: From DanishYugoslavs to Danish Serb
Page 3 and 4: contrast to the older members, who
Page 5 and 6: training indicates that, in spite o
Page 7 and 8: oof. A low birth rate (one or two c
Page 9 and 10: Visibility and Invisibility: The Jo
Page 11 and 12: At present, when the industry-based
Page 13: sameness, away of demonstrating the
Page 17 and 18: is of vital importance that marriag
Page 19 and 20: diaspora,as few are keen to discuss
Page 21 and 22: Serbian sports events, or facilitat
Page 23 and 24: origin ensures that generational co
Page 25 and 26: 35-53. Federspiel, S. (1998) Arbejd
Page 27 and 28: everyday life in Nordic societies,
Page 29 and 30: visible in everyday encounters, in
Page 31 and 32: Grifin, G & Braidotti, R 2002, ‘W

Romanians from Serbia in Denmark

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