Forum

Hi,
I have been offered a permanent job in the University of Copenhagen as a senior member of faculty. We are considering whether to move to Copenhagen or not (from Australia where I currently work). I do not have any friends or family in Denmark so I am wondering if my fellow country men & women can help us out with the following questions / clarifications:
1. What would you consider to be an optimal income to support a family of 5? (with 3 young children in primary school) and have a reasonable living standard (renting a 3 BR apartment or a townhouse in the suburban areas around Copenhagen, have a car, a bit of holidays, a bit of savings to go to India etc.,). I know cost of living is very high, but hopefully the salary is matched up or not? Hope some people with family in Denmark can answer this question?
2. What is a school system there for non-Danish families? Is there a cost-effective way to let children go to a "English speaking" school without sending them to very expensive international schools. If we cannot afford to send them to English speaking schools, the only way is public Danish schools?
3. Is there "Permanent Resident Visa and Work Permit category" that an employer can sponsor or apply for on behalf of the employee? I know green card scheme but that is not permanent - or is it?
4. If anyone can compare Denmark with say Netherlands or Scotland or Germany, how does the weather compare - similar or worse? Is it always rainy and gloomy or you do have some good weeks where you feel warm and have a lot of sun (it is going to be hard for us to leave the nice Tropical parts of Australia)
5. This is a bit tricky question - but I want your honest and unbiased opinion - How does the Danish society treat "Indians" or Indian looking people compared to immigrants from other ethinc groups?
6. can you live in Copenhagen without speaking Danish at all?

I am sorry to have posted all these questions but as you may understand it is a very big decision for us and would like the Indian community to provide your views which can greatly help us decide.

Thanks in advance
Hazza

First of all, Congrats for the job!

1. The term optimal income is very relative and it is impossible to answer that. 3 BR apartments are not so common in Denmark. Renting a 3BR house will cost you around 12k to 15k DKK per month. Buying a car is expensive due to the 180% tax on it. A decent(nothing special) second hand car will cost you around 30k to 50k DKK. Since Denmark is trying to cut down on car usage, the parking costs and tolls are on the higher side.

2. Availability of English medium schools is the biggest deterrant for foreigners to stay here. The costly ones are not really affordable except for the very highly paid expats for whom the companies pay for them. There are a couple of other subsidised english medium ones that cost around 2k to 3k DKK per child per month. Maybe other experienced people in this regard can provide a better picture here.

3. There is no instant PR like the ENS visa in Australia. You have to wait for 7 years to be eligible for one provided you have passed a certain level of language exam by then.

4. If you come from Australia, you will miss that weather and outdoor life really bad here. Except for the 3 or 4 of months in summer/spring/autumn, everything is indoors here. It rains throughout the year including those 3 or 4 months I specified above.

5. I see no tricky part in this question and you need not ask specifically for 'honest' opinion from people.

I have been here for close to 7 years now. I have not seen or heard a single case of rasicm. I have found Danish people to be nice and friendly(but that doesn't mean they will readily accept you in their friends circle or society). Indians are treated no differently than other immigrant groups, but the 'educated/IT' background does provide a better image for the Indians. I am not sure if that distinction will stay advantageous in the long run as we are beginning to be seen as comparitively low wage workers taking the jobs away from the native danes.

6. Approximately more than 95% of the Danes speak English, so that is not a problem.

Just curious, is the alleged racism in Australia a reason for you to try move out of there? From what I know, except for that reason, the overall quality of life in Australia(Weather, Outdoor life, PR, Affordability, Indian community, Language, Cricket, Spouse's career, etc.) might be better.

I completely agree with 'arianashok' in this regard.

For qn.1, you might be able to find a bit cheaper housing if you move to suburbs like Brøndby, Rodovre etc. May be around 10k. From there it would approx. take 20-30 mins to reach Central st. And there is good transportation system all around.

Congrats on the job,

Regarding your 3rd question, since you now know that you need to wait for 7 years before applying for PR. I think you better go for Green Card Visa since it has some advantages like.....you get 3 years visa at once and it remains the same even if you loose your job while on employer sponsored visa your visa gets expired immediately after loosing the job and you will get additional 6 months time to search for a new job.
Another advantage might be that since Danish Government is trying to tighten up PR process as a result they are trying to introduce some more resolutions into the existing process, one of it is Education Criteria like Masters or higher (except for refugees) and since 99% of Green Card Holders have Masters or higher, I think this would fasten up your PR process a little since PR process is very slow and hopefully this could help to fasten after your 7 years of stay...this is just a guess that it would fasten but since this resolution is still in the process of debate in parliament and might get introduced into the currently existing process by next year or so.

Good luck.

Sahil.

Thanks for all those who have answered my questions. They were really useful. It really does need a lot more analysis of facts and thinking before we decide to migrate to Denmark. I love Australia and its people. We (and all Indian families that we know of) never faced any discrimination here. I'd strongly recommend people to migrate here for its standard and cost of living and lifestyle options and multi-cultural tolerance.