How can internationals meet? How can they create something together? How can they build a sense of belonging? Many have tried to answer these questions over the years, not always being able to find a solution. In two weeks, there will be an event in Frederiksberg, at Howitzvej 30, to try to address it—possibly in a way that is actionable, as they say nowadays: something that can be the foundation to build.
One stage and two panels will feature both Danish and international protagonists and stakeholders in the fields of attraction, integration, and retention in Denmark. Among them: Dansk Industri, Copenhagen Capacity, Professional Women of Colour, and the Brotherhood for Professionals of Colour. Also The Copenhagen Post will be among the speakers.
The title of the meeting is Belonging in Denmark. Co-creating a fællesskab (fellowship in Danish, ed.) of belonging, with a tagline that couldn’t be clearer: “What if Danes and internationals could collaborate to design a shared fellowship of belonging?”
The event will take place on May 27 and will last the whole day. You can read more and sign up here.
The event is organized by three companies: Nabo, Sustinary, and Nordic Compass. Elizabeth McClure is the founder and CEO of the first—a platform to build and join communities in Denmark, designed for internationals moving to the country—and explains that she created the event “because I saw, and I see, a lot of energy toward building something and telling the stories of internationals. And I thought that this energy could be extremely productive.”
The overall goal is to “turn these energies, efforts, and work into a process to see internationals co-creating a fellowship and a sense of belonging together.”
Yet, the world of internationals is often perceived as “atomized”—in other words, made up of many particles that struggle to find unity. In this light, what was the feedback Elizabeth McClure received? “It was easier than I thought to assemble the people. It all started with a LinkedIn post that you could define as a ‘call,’ and the feedback I received was great. I saw a group of people who care about integration, wanting to put their know-how together to try to create a space and a moment to give internationals something they could recognize themselves in.”
