Kajaledchumy Sabanathan Holmsberg

In my daily life I don’t feel foreign. My name and my appearance give people a natural curiosity in trying to find out who I am. It doesn’t really affect me so much, but I do get affected when the politicians talk about refugees and immigrants in such negative terms, because this means that they are also talking about me.

Injustice makes me angry. When I was a child, I was told by my teacher at every single parent consultation that I should stop playing the policeman. But I could not stop interfering if I thought that a conflict situation was being resolved badly. As an adult, I have become more diplomatic, but I still feel outraged and feel like screaming when I come across social imbalances. For example, seeing how some families might run into difficulties just because of the new curb on benefits.

I don’t believe that people choose to say: let us take this money and then stay at home rather than get up and go to work. When people do this, it is because they have no other options.
I also don’t believe that the majority of people become more stimulated and energised by receiving less money. It may work that way for some, but not for the vast majority. If it were up to me, one should treat people differently and decide each individual case based on the person’s situation. This would require more resources, but the results would be more fair.

32 years / female / in a relationship / psychologist / Copenhagen NV / from Sri Lanka / from came to Denmark via family reunification in 1989