By Maryam Alaouie, Journalist and Project Coordinator for Migrantour at Crossing Borders.
Are you a tourist that hates walking on mainstream streets and loves discovering cities through the eyes of locals or immigrants? Or are you new to the city and longing to see its hidden gems? Or simply a native, that loves Copenhagen’s cultural diversity? Then this is the tour for you.
Stories give places meaning, which is what Migrantour is all about. Migrantour is a European solidarity project showcasing the richness of the cultural diversity and the history of migration in European cities today. It is intercultural walks with guides who share their stories of the city they call home, from their migrant perspectives. Migrantour was originally created in 2010 in Italy to promote a different kind of tourism, involving people with a history of migration, making city tours more personal, sustainable, and community-based than ever.
Over the years, Migrantour has developed and is now operating in 20 different cities around Europe including Barcelona, Brussels, Lisbon, Ljubljana, Utrecht, and more, and now finally in Copenhagen!
“I want participants to experience the contribution of migrants to Copenhagen, particularly Nørrebro…economic, cultural, and social,” says Alfred, one of our well-trained tour guides from Ghana.
Migrantour Copenhagen is coordinated by Crossing Borders since March 2021. Crossing Borders decided to bring the concept to Copenhagen as it resonates with their mission to create a safe space for dialogue and to bring people together across cultures to share their perspectives, says Garba Diallo, founding director of Crossing Borders.
“We decided to bring Migrantour to Copenhagen because of the fact that Copenhagen is a globalizing city which migration makes richer and more innovative,” answered Diallo, when asked why he decided to bring Migrantour to Copenhagen. “In today’s Copenhagen, we can meet people from every corner of the world, eat food, have drinks from Coffee to Chai to Mate to Ayran, and listen to music as something natural. We are making Copenhagen richer and more connected with herself and the rest of the world than ever,” continues Diallo.
Co-created by people with a migration background, Copenhagen Migrantour highlights the multiculturalism of the city. It helps connect people who are born in Copenhagen, migrants, and tourists, to each other and to the city, while empowering migrants to claim their place in the cultural heritage of the city.
Working together with experts, the tour guides have developed personal, yet insightful tours in one of the most colorful areas in Copenhagen, Nørrebro, a vibrant and hipster district that has been a home to many generations of migrants. The interactive walking tours are designed for tourist groups, university students and school classes who want to learn about Copenhagen from diverse, local perspectives.
For booking your tour and for more information kindly visit the Migrantour website at https://migrantoursdenmark.crossingborders.dk or reach out to Crossing Borders +45 21 63 94 32 for any inquiries.
Testimonials:
“I have been in Copenhagen a few times before, but the tour gave me a new perspective of the city, uhm, not sure how to explain but you feel more connected to it somehow…”
– Tourist from Norway
“The tour was full of stories, history, and cozy narrow streets, loved it!”
– Newcomer to Denmark from France