Vinh Hien Do

We are Vietnamese. We cannot change our background. But we live 100% within Danish society, which means that in everyday life we don’t think about being Danish or Vietnamese. We are just here 100%.

I am a catholic, and I always had the ambition of becoming a priest. I was close to getting my dream fulfilled when I was forced to flee. Arriving in Denmark, I realised that my dream was over. I had a family back in Vietnam to support, and I simply couldn’t afford to continue my studies. So I decided to study engineering. I had all kinds of odd jobs until my wife and I managed to scrape enough money together to buy a small corner shop. We both worked long hours, and it wasn’t always easy to juggle work, children and education at the same time. But we managed. Later I bought a restaurant as this had much more potential. Even though I am not a trained chef, my roast pork had the crispiest pork crackling in the suburb of Hundige. We sold the restaurant and built a factory to create more jobs for the Vietnamese in Denmark. Our family and friends have always believed in us and in our dreams. Every time we have embarked on a new adventure, they have backed us, and at times even helped us financially. Once we had problems at the factory I managed to scrape 1,5 million kroner together in just three days. We no longer work as self-employed, so now it is time to gear down and enjoy life with all the fantastic people we are surrounded by.

64 years / male / in a relationship / children / trained engineer, technician with NKT Photonics / Copenhagen V / from Vietnam / came to Denmark in 1980 / residence permit same year