• file81aS5cginq07pskwci8nc
  • Foto: Finn Frandsen
  • Foto: Finn Frandsen
  • file815cSSgkj64mv13ugfuk55

When Mustapha Bachiri arrived in Denmark from Morocco in 1967, he was warmly welcomed. »People thought we were here to help,« he recalls. But for his son, musician Isam B., the story of guest workers is less idyllic.

»First, we were foreign workers, then guest workers, then non-ethnic Danes. I've been here for 60 years—how can you still call me non-ethnic?«

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I struggle to find the right words.

I’ve thought quite a bit about how to refer to Mustapha Bachiri. ’Guest worker’ sounds strange; you don’t ask guests to work. The word ’migrant’ conjures images of chaos and rubber boats off the coast of Italy. It doesn’t fit the calm, nearly 80-year-old man sitting across from me at all.

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