DANISH EMIGRATION

There is a lot of talk here about pesky East Europeans and others coming to Denmark, but where do Danes go?

Within the E.U., the answer is clear; Sweden, the U.K. and Germany, in that order. The first takes people who hop over the Øresund and commute to Copenhagen from Malmö because housing is cheaper and marrying non-E.U. citizens easier there; the second because of the English language; and the third because Germany is Denmark's biggest trading partner.

Sweden and the U.K. are also two of only five countries in the E.U. (the others are the slightly odd, and small, Luxemburg, Malta and Cyprus), which attract more Danes to them than the other way around. Romania sends a lot of its citizens to Denmark; but in 2013, only 31 Danes moved to Romania. The figure for Bulgaria was even lower, just 19; for Slovenia a mere 3.

The attractions of Ljubljana and Sofia have obviously not infiltrated the Danish mentality. I suspect that that will remain so for a while.

Walter Blotscher