There should be a difference between living in Billund Municipality and actually feeling at home here.
And that’s something 38-year-old Ashwini Shastri wants to help make sure happens for the many international residents who have come to the municipality.
She has just been elected the very first chair of Billund Municipality’s new International Council – and she already has plenty of ideas for what the council should take on.
– We don’t want families to move to another municipality just because they don’t feel they belong here. It’s about creating a sense of belonging, says Ashwini Shastri.
From idea to reality in a year
The International Council held its first meeting on Monday, where Ashwini Shastri was elected chair and Kate Carr vice-chair. That means an idea that was only being discussed around a year ago has now become a reality.
And it has actually happened faster than Ashwini had dared to hope.
– We hoped the council would happen, but I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly. It’s only been about a year from when we started talking about it to now. I actually think the municipal council deserves credit for that, she says.
The little things can have big consequences
Now the council has to show what it can do.
And this isn’t just about big, impressive words like integration and internationalisation. Ashwini points to very practical challenges you can run into when you come to Denmark and don’t yet know how the system works.
It could be language classes, tax rules, residence rules or simply the question of where to go to get the right information.
She has experienced this herself.
– I went through an education programme myself that cost me four years in terms of getting my permanent residence permit. It’s the kind of thing Danes may not know about because they aren’t part of that system themselves. And international residents don’t necessarily know about it when they get here either. Someone needs to tell them, she says.
That’s why she sees opportunities to make information and language classes more accessible and to build stronger networks for both new and more established international residents. One idea is also an annual international festival where people can meet and learn more about the opportunities in the local community.
It has to prove its worth
The new council has nine members with very different backgrounds. Two are on the municipal council, while the others represent, among others, the business community, International School of Billund, Billund International, rural areas, cultural and leisure activities, and young people.
And that mix is important to the new chair.
– We are nine people from different organisations and with different backgrounds. Everyone brings their own perspective, and international residents have theirs. We can bring them together, she says.
But the council hasn’t been given a free pass to continue forever. It will be evaluated as early as next year.
Ashwini Shastri is quite happy with that. Because the ambition is clear:
– Right now, it looks like the council is temporary because it will be evaluated next year. But I don’t want it to be temporary. It has to continue. Billund needs it, with more than 100 nationalities living here, she says.
So the first year will also be the year when the new council has to show that it can make a real difference. And, ideally, help make Billund Municipality more than just the place international employees and their families move to for work.
It should also be a place they want to call home.
