Visas and Borders

The Visa journey… Sitting in the Danish Agency for Labour Retention and International Recruitment… an arm of the Ministry of Refugees, Immigration, and Integration. Woohoooo… When I got here almost three hours ago it said I had a wait time of 55 minutes. I am in line as number 162. They are on number 38. Damn.

This is such a strange sort of purgatory…. people are just moving slowing, but also exactly the same. Way calm about the situation. Like we all expect to be like cattle here. Almost everyone around me is brown. Lots of babies, old people, LOTS of young men. Last time I was here a little 2 year old was running around with a balloon. When it popped it was about the most exciting thing the room had seen in hours. (number 39!!!)

I am having all sorts of thoughts about deservingness and citizenship. This entire system of nations, borders, passports – it’s so new, so flawed. It chills me to think of how seamlessly we accept this system. Forventet ventetid, estimated wait time: 235. In minutes. This is pretty wild. There are more languages in this room than most hundred square mile sections of Denmark I would guess. Some musings on how to live my life. I really appreciate some aspects of how Danes approach “social justice” and human rights type work. There is less of a competitive edge to their notion of doing good work than I have found with most like-minded Americans. It’s a strange thing, really. Being competitive about helping people. I mean, really? But I’m serious. Why do I care about the world? Do I need to win at helping? NO. That’s some bullshit. Danes seem to value their own happiness in a way that many Americans I know who are interested in “helping people” just… don’t. There is something more genuine in that to me. More of a tendency, an emphasis on living life in a way that includes social justice, helping. The “do-good” isn’t separate from, but deeply intrinsic to, the rest of a person’s life. Of course it’s not all so rosy. But in general I really do think that Danes value their happiness. And that translates into them being less wound tight, holding less of a martyr complex, than a lot of Americans.  

 Part of that I think comes from the psychology of the welfare state. People have space to do what they love, what they’re good at, because different types of work are valued more equally than in other parts of the world. I absolutely think that hard work and valuable service should be recognized and awarded. But the hundreds times salaried leaders of big companies who really have done nothing remarkable apart from being born where they’re born and working how they work in our system – that doesn’t make me dance around about the American dream. Whenever I hear the sound of stamps I get slightly excited. You know new comers because they look at the overhead when the little ding! announcing next-counter-open sounds. The rest of us know that it isn’t our number. I have been mistaken for a Swede several times. Had a nice chat with a Canadian-Swedish couple that are pregnant together. They’re number 283 so coming back Monday.

For the final project at the end of the fellowship this summer, everyone is doing an “Action Plan” – a practice at creating a plan for a social justice action. I have helped brain storm with one of the groups. They are interested in ideas of nationhood and borders. The rights and deservingness bestowed up on us by virtue of soil and blood. As am I, clearly. My idea is to create an educational tool for elementary – high school aged kids. Of course adjusted by age. The basic structure will be that kids are given a passport that contains the rights available to someone in a given situation. There will be a story line of the people they become taken from a realistic sample of the experiences of people in that area (Copenhagen, for example). As the class learns about the stories and experiences of refugees to their community students would share what the person they are “playing” experiences. For example – you get sick! What are your rights? You outgrow your shoes! What is the “normal” next step? If you live in Center Sandholm you wait a couple months until your parents are issued tokens that can be taken to the camp store where you can get new shoes. One draw back of this program is that the kids who “play” more disadvantaged groups may gain a look at the lack of equality at play – but not every kid. So another way to approach it would be to have two profiles in each passport: native Danish and then another situation. Which can also include long-term resident, etc. They closed the doors half an hour ago but somehow the wait time as continued to increase. Clearly a ploy to assuage the masses. I have no stock in that little red number.

Forventet ventetid: 361 minutes.

HAHAHA there were just three ding!s within about two minutes and the crowd made a hugely audible “ooOOOOoooo” sound. And then we all looked around and were so aware of the collective hilarity of our situation. I’ve become buddies with a Chinese student who goes to Roskilde University. She gave me a cupcake. And two Indian men living in Denmark…. we’ve attempted to get on the internet together and generally joked about the conspiracy theory that is the little minute wait time light. Immigration authority friendships = the best friendships. My Chinese friend just realized she didn’t have the bank statements that she needs to prove she can pay for things…. so her friend is racing off to get it... She has lived here for five years and she says that this is the first time they’ve asked for it. Interesting!   

 Forventet ventetid: 195 minutes. REALLY??!?!?! Late breaking news.... I MADE IT!! One of my new friends from the immigration office gave me her ticket (very Willy Wonka) because she got another from her friend... I had helped her with paperwork she was missing and made her a drawing, she gave me a cup cake. Really a whole little world in there.... I AM ALLOWED TO GO TO DENMARK.