Cafe Venligbo - Containing Kindness: An investigation of the interactions at the double setting of Cafe Venligbo

Nielsen, Nicoline Kjemtrup ; Melchjorsen, Mette

4. term

Global Refugee Studies, Master

2015

2015-12-17

88 pages

The circumstances for refugees in Denmark is being made harder and harder based on a political attempt to limit the number of refugees entering the country, as well as making them leave again as fast as possible. Nevertheless, there are more refugees than ever in Denmark who are living amongst the Danes in the welfare society. Although the political line is strict, or maybe because of it, civil society has taken upon it to welcome the refugees in Denmark, helping them integrating and finding a place in the Danish society. The Venligboer movement is one such civil society initiative, which has taken upon it to welcome refugees. It is mainly a Facebook phenomenon, but for three months in the summer of 2015 it also had a physical location in Copenhagen called Cafe Venligbo. This was a small, temporary, outdoor park cafe driven solely by volunteers of Danish and refugee background. Its goal was to make Danes and refugees meet through kindness and cheap coffee. This thesis is an investigation of how the meeting between Danes and refugees unfolded, what effects it had on the individuals involved and how these effects might have spread to the broader Danish society. It is based on a month long fieldwork at Cafe Venligbo as well as observations and examples from the several Venligboer Facebook groups. It will shed light on:  How the meeting between Dane and refugee is affected by the two parties being precategorized as such,  What it means that a specific space has been created for this meeting to take place, and  Whether some of the outcomes of the meeting can be taken out of Cafe Venligbo and what that means for Danish society. Throughout the thesis Erving Goffman’s theories on impression management will be used to analyze the empirical data. Goffman operates with everyday interactions between people, taking place in small-scale settings and is therefore appropriate to shed light on what happens at the cafe and on Facebook. Before looking at these interactions, we will define the refugee and Dane as understood from a Danish perspective. There will be put emphasis on how the role of being Dane or refugee influences the actions of both parties, at the cafe and in the Facebook community respectively. The findings will show that their roles can at times be actively used and at other times be dictating to their actions. Furthermore, it will be discussed what is means to be a Venligboer and how this role affects the Danishness and the “refugeeness” of the people involved. Lastly, there will be a discussion about whether or not the outcomes of the Venligbo initiative can be used in a broader perspective of the Danish society.

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