Romanians from Serbia in Denmark

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Introduction: A Night at the Serbian Association In May 2008, a small gathering was held on the premises of the Danish- Serbian Friendship Association in a Danish provincial town. Hosting the meeting was a mixture of middle-aged, first-generation immigrants and some youngermen, born and raised in Denmark by Serbian parents. The purpose of the meeting was to introduce some Danish students—and myself as their supervisor—to the daily lifeof Serbian migrants in Denmark as part of their preparation for a field-trip to Serbia. Our hosts shared their thoughts and experiences about being Serbs in Denmark and told us about their jobs, family situations and leisure activities, notably in the town’s Serbian football club. Many of our younger hosts figured prominently in the photographs of consecutive football teams which adorned the walls, among a large number of cups and prizes won at football tournaments and in fishing competitions. Among these were also a number of pictures showing young people practising Yugoslav folk dances, on which the humorous comment was: ‘If you told them back in Serbia that you were practising folk dancing, they’d start kidding you. They’d think you’re a hillbilly. It’s only here that wecarry on like this’. Whereas the dancing and the Serbian football teams represented the association’s activities in maintaining and cultivating bonds within the Serbian community, other photographs illustrated the strongcommitment of the association to Danish society by documenting the visits of Danish politicians and the leadersof local labour movements at cultural events organised by the association. During the evening, a lively mixture of Danish, Serbian and Vlaski was spoken. Vlaski is a Romanian dialect spoken by members of the Vlach minority in eastern Serbia, to which all the association’s members belonged. Askedhow they handled three different languages in their daily lives, the young men replied that they mainly speakDanish, even in their homes. The majority used Serbian regularly, primarily to communicate with older familymembers and with their families back home. Vlaski was understood but seldom used. Several had been given Danish first names by their parents. In other cases their friends had turned their Serbian name into a Danish-sounding equivalent. These young men had many Danish friends and acquaintances, but maintained a core of Serbian(football) friends with whom they communicated almost exclusively in Danish. This was in
contrast to the older members, who mainly used Vlaski, and more rarely Danish, in chatting with each other. Likewise, the younger members tended to speak of themselves as Danish Serbs, whereas the older people often spokeof themselves as Yugoslavs and of their homeland as Yugoslavia. This reflected a reluctance among the oldergeneration to accept the eradication of the Yugoslav state in 1990, a reluctance that postponed the relabellingof the Yugoslav Club to its present name (the Danish-Serbian Friendship Association) until 1998. It was in this process that the club was restructured as an association which included Danes. One young man stressed that hefelt 80 per cent Danish and 20 per cent Serb. He said that he found it difficult to take seriously those who called themselves Serbs but who had lived all their lives in Denmark. Discussions nonetheless made it clear that our hosts attributed great importance to the association as a means ofsuccessful integration. It was precisely because of the continuous backing of the Vlach community that ‘their’youngsters had managed to steer clear of the flaws encountered in other immigrant communities. 1 The many social, cultural and sporting activities, it was stressed, had acted tomaintain tight relations and a strong sense of identity within the Serbian Vlach minority. This had, they held, facilitated their integration into Danish society to such an extent that they had become successful and respectedcitizens. Several of them had obtained solid positions either in the municipality or as mid-level managers inprivate firms. Some had been elected to the town council or the ‘Council for Integration’ as politicalrepresentatives. 2 As for the latter, they stressed that they no longer discussedintegration. ‘Now it’s no longer ‘‘them and us’’, but instead a question of civic participation’. The Vlachs in Denmark: Difference and Sameness We do not form a glaring contrast to the Danish population. We do not have dark skins, and our culture and habitsare no different from Danish habits (Serbian male, 2005). Many Yugoslavs live here. But then, when you think about it, we aren’t here, because we are so integrated. We are accepted so
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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 and 14: sameness, away of demonstrating the
Page 15 and 16: encouraging their children to adopt
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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