Refugees and the dangers of self-fulfilling prophecies

I got to visit Noura Bittar at her home only after I promised to ignore the mess. She is a proud woman, and, in fact, her small flat in Copenhagen seemed pretty tidy, given that she runs a catering business from here, while also looking after a new-born baby. And yet, it was easy to understand Noura's need to retain a sense of dignity.

She fled to Denmark from the civil war in Syria, and is troubled by the way people often perceive those classed as "refugees". "You have that stereotyping… that we came here to take their jobs and money. And I just want to say, 'No, that's not us.'"

Noura set out to dispel that image, despite still reeling from the fighting back in her home town of Homs, where friends were killed and close family members injured. She set up a catering business, hoping it would introduce more Danes to the cuisine of her homeland, while making her financially self-sufficient in the process. But even while she was building up the company, and not yet turning a profit, Noura began offering free cookery classes to Danish women who had been victims of rape or domestic abuse. "Danish society gave us security. It gave us a place to stay. I wanted to say thank you."

... Watching this development was a young academic researcher, Conor Clancy. He was doing a master's thesis on management and entrepreneurship, and came up with an idea that was, to say the least, going against the grain. He thought the new refugee arrivals should be seen as a resource, not a burden. "Our research showed that when they're in the camps, [refugees] show a lot of entrepreneurial attributes," he says. "They come with passion and drive."

Mr Clancy formed Refugee Entrepreneurs Denmark, which helps new arrivals such as Noura to start their own business, supporting them with information, advice and general encouragement. He hopes this will enable refugees to become independent, no longer the "burden" some Danes seem to fear. And, more ambitiously, he believes these businesses will eventually create jobs that employ local Danes. "This will put more tax into the system," he says, "but also help break down the wall between refugees and their host nation."

Martin Henriksen believes refugees are already getting too much support. An MP for the nationalist Danish People's Party, he took me for a stroll round the Norrebro area of Copenhagen, where many refugees have settled. "A lot of people here have a different cultural background, religious background - they speak another language," he says, pointing out the number of homes with drawn curtains. He takes this as symbolic of separate lives that some foreign-born residents lead.

The DPP came second in the last Danish election, on a platform of opposing immigration and the granting of asylum. Mr Henriksen rejects the idea that refugees can be a resource. "The majority don't have the will," he says.

What do you imagine these people were doing in their home country before they trekked thousands of miles to reach northern Europe ? Are you worried that you have somehow acquired the world's most hard-working, determined benefit cheats ? People who have walked thousands of miles rather than find a job... ?

You can either try and help these people integrate and become upstanding tax-paying members of society, or you can shun them. The latter is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you refuse to let them integrate, then they won't. They'll become the foreign parasites you fear so much not because of their nature, but because you refused to believe they could be anything else.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40803432