Whenever I read about a campaign to stop someone from being deported, I am almost always sympathetic and supportive. But I also can't help but think about the people who are no less deserving of support, but don't have a community with the means/wherewithal to launch such a campaign behind them. Yes, people should work hard to stop Gus from being deported. But if the campaign stops once Gus' situation is resolved the campaign will be a minor victory at best. Gus' situation is a symptom of a disease. It is the disease itself which must be cured
I'm Danish, and unfortunately this story doesn't surprise me. My brother's Australian girlfriend was unable to get a residence here (He's an engineer, she's a lawyer), one of my good friends' girlfriend from Brazil couldn't get a residence here even though they have a five year old son that's born and raised in Denmark. All of them are hardworking people that can take care of themselves. The list goes on.<p>The problem is that around ten years ago the current conservative minority government was formed, and to gain a majority they have relied on the right-wing Danish people party whose primary, and maybe only agenda is stopping immigration. This has lead to a political reality where the Danish People party has voted yes to whatever legislation from the government in return for further restraints and barriers for immigrants. They've used their position extremely well, and have used their platform to alienate immigrants and make them all out as devils in the minds of the people.<p>Ten years of this has unfortunately marked the country. The tone in the media is increasingly harsh towards immigrants, and other parties have started adopting the stance of the Danish People party since it's pretty successful - after all the Danish People party has had a decade to convince Danes that immigrants are only here to steal our jobs and use our social services.<p>As a result we've become a country of people that despise immigrants.<p>It's a very sad state of affairs, and this website is only one of many examples. I feel terrible about what my country has become.
I really don't understand Denmark when it comes to migration issues. They make it so hard to move there for non-EU citizens that it is ridiculous.<p>As an example, I know of more than one married couple with one Dane and one non-eu citizen that have been forced to live in Sweden instead of in Denmark due to troubles getting residency permits. Not letting a legitimate spouse get at least residency is just crazy.
An informative comment by a Dane in this thread suggests that the Danish immigration system tries to prevent immigrants using/exploiting its great social welfare benefits while contributing little to the society or causing problems like forming ghettos.<p>A straightforward way to address this issue is to deploy a point system currently used by several countries, including Canada and Singapore.<p>I wonder why Denmark and the US, in particular, do not use this obvious sort of point-based system. There will likely be a massive 'brain draw' towards the US if this is implemented and specialized Startup Visa may not even be needed if the criteria/formulas are selected well.<p>In the Danish system, it looks like the criteria are not optimized towards its real goals and use non-optimal proxy criteria like EU citizenship to make decision on immigration. This creates many weird cases like this (it is obvious from his resume that Gus will contribute as much or more to the Danish society than an average Danish citizen, yet he cannot stay there) and many we did not hear of.<p>Note:
It is true that the politicians needs to balance the issues of cultural assimilation with economic advantages gained from getting all these qualified immigrants (for example, the US might not want 2 million qualified Chinese and Indians coming in every year and form cliques within the country), but this requirement is easily satisfied by a good quota/bucket system.
As long as Denmark has a growing "Danish People's Party" (3rd largest at 13.8%) in a government supporting role, with the one-trick pony voter's appeal of immigration (thus they have to tighten and tighten it), I have 3 advices for anyone contemplating Denmark:
1) Do not move to Denmark or start a company in Denmark
2) Do not get an education in Denmark
3) Do not fall in love with a Dane (if you are a non-EU citizen)<p>Danish educational institutions and companies go to a great extent to convince their surroundings, that they are international & business oriented, but the matter of fact is that this is not supported by the parliament. It is as simple as that. So don't get lured by their marketing. Stay out.
It is very difficult for me to take a side without hearing views from all the sides for a story. Google was not much help.<p>Any links where I can see the Denmark Government's Point of View of his kicking (any relevant documents etc.)?
Thanks for all your support, so far my case has been picked up by several media outlets but I am yet to get a response from any of the political representatives. However, the fat lady hasn't sung so I won't be dropping the ball just yet. My case, I believe, highlights some of the inefficiencies and absurdities that are in place, within some governmental organizations. I fully recognize that because of my involvement with entrepreneurship and my network I have managed to gain a great amount of support to my case. Saying that, there are many smarter and more brilliant people out there who's case will remain silent and they'll just disappear into the night. I hope, if one thing, my case can be an example of what others can do to show that a country shouldn't be known by it's policies and procedures but by the amazing people within it that won't lay down but are willing to voice their disapproval to cases like mine. Thanks again for your support!
Agree with all the points about Denmark; as a Swede I'm happy that we at least are somewhat better at making it possible to immigrate.<p>I'm very curious as to what impact this campaign can have on the Danish authorities. I would guess none if it doesn't get picked up by the Danish (print) media and since Gus isn't a classical victim (meaning poor, uneducated, a child and so on) I don't see that happening. Unfortunately.<p>That said, it's nice to see someone putting down actual work in creating a web site for a friend instead of the usual "create a facebook group" or "retweet to show support" which to me feels like the most lazy way to show that you care.