Young People’s Participation. Группа авторов

      I went to this school for seven years and after the first year of high school, I decided that I wanted to make a change and go to a Danish school that has an international background. So I went to Birkerød Gymnasium for my second and third year of high school but in the International Baccalaureate-line. That was in 2016 and it was like the highlight of my teenage years because a lot of stuff was happening for me. At the age of 16, I was very narrow minded. My plans were to go to Copenhagen Business School (CBS), study business and make a lot of money. My thought was: “I’ll be successful making money.” That was the only thing I was thinking about. That was my goal. It drove me to get good grades, a scholarship in the school I went to and generally just everything I did was to earn money.

      Around the same time, I got introduced to the youth council at the youth club. I had been part of the student council of my school for six or seven years and been the student council president the last three years of my school, so I knew the system of being in a council. It was fun, but it was like … it was basically like politics, bureaucratic politics. We talked to our counsellor, who talked to our principal, who then talked to the school board, which financed the school’s funds. There was a lot of bureaucracy. In our youth council at the youth club, it was easier to go directly to the board and just speak to them about the things we wanted to do.

      All of this in 2016 also changed my life because our youth council in the youth club began collaborating with the Danish NGO ActionAid. In ActionAid, we talked about racism and prejudice and went to a very large People’s Meeting in Bornholm with many politicians present. This project of the NGO was focused on immigrant youth in Denmark wanting to have a voice. I gave a speech about how I did not break a pattern, because I am an immigrant having good grades, going to the high school I wanted to go to. Those who are criminals are breaking the pattern. It is normal for immigrants to go to school and not be engaged in crime.

      This speech changed my life entirely, as I got a lot of good feedback, which made me realise that I had moved on to challenge my principles that money equalled success. I started to think out of the box. There is so much equality in Denmark and still we have all these problems.

      So the youth council in the youth club really helped make me the person I am today: I got a network, I still volunteer for ActionAid, it has been four years now. Instead of going to CBS, I go to Roskilde University (RUC) and I am studying international politics instead of studying business. I am still interested in business, but I feel like I am more interested in public work. It is amazing to study at RUC, I really like it. You get new perspectives on things. When you read a newspaper, you read news differently, you understand more things. Why a person is doing what he is doing, why a state is doing what it is doing. I am also part of the student organisation, Frit Forum (Free Forum). Right now we have RUC elections to the student council and they make a big deal out of it. They give you free coffee and “Vote for me.” It is like a real election. And I feel like I am more of a social worker than a politician. I am more of a social person than I am to someone electing me. I guess it feels good to be elected, but it’s not really me. I don’t see myself going into politics. Bureaucracy is a big part of it. I feel I have more influence than I think you have when you choose people through politics. I have realised that power is more valuable than money because money is too materialistic.

      In the future I want to work with kids, be it here in Denmark or somewhere else. Work with kids and help them get the things that they don’t have. If I decide to work in Denmark, it is about confronting a discourse that states that all immigrants do this and that. You can break that and make people believe something else. If I decide to work in Nepal, maybe it is about getting kids into education and teach them basic rights. Maybe sexual health for small girls. It depends on where you are, because every region has their own difficulties. But I do believe that children are the ones that … children are the future. I believe we should have the most focus on children because it is just more important that way. I think that Denmark doesn’t have enough focus on their youth. One of the themes when I was on Bornholm was that the youth were being talked with – not talked to – which really hit me because youths want to be listened to. It is nice for the youth. They deserve attention as well.

      Currently I work in my old youth club because maybe I can prevent the kids that I work with from being like some of my old friends. Give them the right guidance instead. It is really weird or nostalgic when I work there. I started four weeks ago, and it is weird because of my age. Some people are 17 and I am 19 and I am supposed to be their guidance counsellor. I feel like they know that I can still teach them something because of the things I have experienced. But the age thing is really weird in Denmark because you see age as something that determines how much you know, I guess, and not the maturity of the person. Some of the most significant people in my life have also been from the youth club because they straightened me up. They knew my potential. If I skipped school, they were like, “Come on.” They push. They make you feel that you can do better than you think. They used to teach me how to be a good student and now they teach me how to be a good educator. This is the real importance of the youth club in my life.

      Note

1Tingbjerg is a social housing area on the outskirts of Copenhagen. It is formally defined as a ‘ghetto’, due to low education levels among residents and high levels of residents with non-Western backgrounds. The criteria are defined by the Danish government and several social housing areas are on the so-called ‘ghetto list’.

       Part II

       Current state and conditions for young people’s participation: critiques and trends