Last Week in Denmark

Nurse Quotas, School Meals, and Bus Fares in Denmark: S4E5

• Season 4 • Episode 5

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Healthcare, Candy, Buses: Denmark’s Big Choices. Katie and Kalpita, two internationals living in Denmark, take on the week’s sharpest debates. From the government’s new quota on non-EU nurses, to billions for candy tax cuts instead of free school meals, to Aarhus testing cheaper bus tickets — these choices reveal what Denmark values, what it risks overlooking and how these changes could impact internationals living here. 

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(00:00) This week's topics

(01:03) Danish non-EU nurse quota bias

(14:57) School meals vs candy tax cuts in Denmark

(27:05) Cheaper Aarhus bus ticket debate

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Katie

Hello, hello. Welcome to episode five of season four of the Last Week in Denmark podcast. I'm Katie and I'm cohosting with the wonderful Kalpita. How are you doing?

Kalpita

I'm good, thank you. I'm so excited to do this with you again and I think we're having more episodes this time.

Katie

I know. Back again?

Kalpita

Yeah.

Katie

Yes. Excellent. I'm looking forward to hearing all of your I'm going to say opinions and not rage, so I don't give any spoilers, but the three topics this week that we're going to be talking about are the new limit for non-EU nurses. Is this fair workforce planning or a barrier to opportunity? I know you have a lot to say on that, so I'm looking forward to this one. Then we're going to be talking about free school meals versus cheaper sweets. So should billions go to healthy lunches or candy tax cuts in Denmark and what does it say about the priorities within the country? And then cheaper bus tickets and Aarhus and then potentially other areas. Would this be a real climate solution or just a cyclist discount? So let's start off with the big juicy topic of the quota for non-EU nurses that's being brought in. So the government is planning to cap the number of nurses from outside the EU and they've claimed this is from a surge in applications going from 1200 in 2022 to nearly 5000 last year, so far outpacing the demand. They've also said that they've gotten an increase of nurses returning to work within Denmark. So it's to ensure that, you know, people don't give up their lives and their jobs in other countries and then come to Denmark to then be disappointed and not find opportunities or in worst case scenarios, basically have no way to have a livelihood. What are your thoughts on this one, Kalpita? I am watching your face right now and I'm so excited.

Kalpita

Sounds like every international plight, one of your spouse gets a opportunity, you come with the family, obviously, and then your accompanying spouse gets absolutely nothing and then they're forced to be housewives, the househusbands, whatever the case might be, and, and that's pretty much the end of it. And that's why most people leave. And that does not apply to nurses or for healthcare professionals. But in this case particularly, it's specifically professionals from Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Iran and some other countries which they don't want to name. And there were apparently 4,900 foreign healthcare professionals that applied who were majority of them nurses, because obviously Denmark went public with, hey, we need nurses. And of course people applied for it and that was a four fold increase in applications since 2022. And then they needed 1200 foreign um, foreigners applied or internationals applied for a three year residence permit, which is what they would authorize for any healthcare professionals to come in Denmark. Now there are many layers to this, but one of the layers is obviously irrespective of what profession or especially healthcare professional that wants to come into Denmark will need to speak the language. And it's irrespective of whether you're a nurse, you're a SOSU person or you're just somebody who helps within the healthcare sector. So that is a demand obviously, which means that Denmark doesn't want to put in the resources to train these non Danish professionals to become part of the system. Secondly, they themselves went out to places like India and if I remember correctly it was Indonesia, some some similar Asian country as well to recruit nurses and to teach them the Danish standard of being a nurse. And nothing happened about it, absolutely nothing. They were not able to either complete their courses because they didn't have enough people from Denmark who were training them or they were told that, well, you don't speak Danish, you have the skills. So sorry, no can do. So this, this entire system of recruiting healthcare professionals is flawed from the get go. And it really, really upsets me to see how the government is playing dumb. It has been a thing going on for three to four years now and it cannot be something that you just out of the blue just discover that oh my God, we have about 5,000 professionals, but we can't have them because they're from Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Iran and we don't want people from there. So it's also a bit of a bias leaning from that point of view. Also you can't, you, you can't ask internationals to apply with their existing skills and then say, oh we're so sorry but you can't bring your family with you, you just have to come by yourself. Like they, they're also doing that for example in the education system. For example, Niels Brock is, is, is, what do you call that? Nedskæring, firing teachers. So they're downsizing the entire staff. They've cancelled certain courses as well. And it is specifically said that students from Nepal, from Pakistan, Bangladesh will not be allowed with their spouses. So if they want to get an education and they get a student visa, then they have to come alone and they are not allowed to seek a job unless it is in their profession. So if then you don't get SU as a non EU citizen, even if you're a student. So there are so many layers to this and it just stinks.

Katie

Yeah, it's the same thing over and over again. And I think, like, there's layers of what I don't like about it. Like, first of all, it being, like, cool, non EU nurses. There's no reason that an EU nurse is more qualified than a non EU nurse. Don't know why we would make that kind of jump there. There's kind of. And as well, there's. There's so many languages in, in the EU that are in no way similar to Danish. So you come up against the same roadblocks. There's no, like, logical reason like it. I mean, there is no logic. It just feels like bias and racism. So, like that, first and foremost, I already don't like that. But then it's this kind of, like, it's this shortsightedness as well, of just kind of like, well, oh, now a lot of people are applying, so we'll just say no. It's like, we're not suddenly never going to need nurses ever again. But you're cutting off all of these people who want to move here, who have the skills, who are more than qualified, they just need help with the language. But then also the international people are growing here as well, so surely there's something in between. There's also things like, say we can see that the government has some healthcare initiatives coming up in the finance bill. So they're saying in terms of fertility clinics, that now you're going to get more tries for your second child. I don't know about you, me and my partner in the fertility process at the moment. And we can't get anyone on the phone. We can't get any. Thank you. I see a happy smile. It's very. Or it would be very exciting if anyone would talk to us. So just try to get some answers, someone to tell us what the process is. But also who's administering all these extra things, who's helping all these extra people who are trying more and more. So it's not like we have, like, such an overabundance of health care staff that we're like, no, no, we'll never need a nurse ever again. We have an aging population, a declining birth rate. It all just feels very like, no, no, no. We don't want people from certain countries to come into Denmark. And it feels particularly thinly veiled here, like, barely not even a slight hint of a veil about it and that they don't really have to hide it. I don't like that at all.

Kalpita

Yeah, I mean one of the things now I'm reading on the official Ministry of Interior and Health and they say how nurses obtain Danish authorization is the title of nurse is protected. Is a protected title. A foreign nurse who is educated in so called third countries, I'm not kidding you, these are the words in this announcement here. So called third countries, countries outside of the EU must have a Danish authorization to work in Denmark as a nurse, basically a healthcare professional. So whether you're a dentist, an ophthalmologist or an engineer or whatever, your education needs to be authorized by the Danish government. And to obtain this Danish authorization, you must first apply to the Danish Patent Safety Agency to have an have your education from your home country approved. Then you can travel to Denmark on a three year residence permit where you must pass a language test and complete an evaluation placement that must be approved before you are issued a Danish authorization. But my question is, if people are not getting authorisation, they are not making the trip to Denmark to do the three year residency and learn the language. So how is any of this helping? Because I understand the, that there's, I mean of course there's a clear, clear bias for so called third countries, but where is the EU professional standing in all of this? Right, because they also have an education in healthcare, for example, which is outside of Denmark. So do they also get an authorization and what is the process for their authorization as well? Because they also have to learn the Danish language. So they just get a free pass because their education is valid and some other healthcare professionals education is not valid.

Fionn

Did you know that the Last Week in Denmark newsletter is available in eight languages? Hey there, this is Fionn from the Last Week in Denmark podcast. And every week you guys are tuning in to hear me and my fellow cohosts talk about the top news of the week in English. But let's be real, we're all internationals. So not only are you speaking English every day, you're probably also speaking a bit of Danish, but you've probably also got your own native language as well, like the multilingual master you are. So why not treat yourself to the luxury of being able to read Danish news each week in your own native language. So head on over to lastweekdk.substack.com that's lastweekdk.substack.com and sign up for our newsletter delivered to you every single Sunday.

Katie

But I also feel like a lot of Europe is how like in Ireland we've had a nursing crisis for so long. Because the conditions are horrendous and they've done nothing to make it better except for clapping at people during COVID. So it's, it's this kind of like, it's not like this is Denmark is the only country in Europe that has this problem. And then, okay, maybe the conditions are better here. But you know, it's also a very expensive place to live. So you're asking people to come from countries where they're, okay, they might make more money, but they don't know anything. They have to learn this crazy language. And it's, it's kind of like, okay, you're kind of cutting off a lot of resources for the future going forward. And then as well, you know, if I'm one of these 5,000 people who applied for this Danish authorization, thinking, okay, great, let's give this a go, let's see if we can make it work. And then I get burned and told, nah, you're from a third country, as they're calling it, I'm not going to apply the next time because it'll seem like a scam. So it's kind of, you're just kind of cutting off a huge amount of the world for resources that we will eventually need in Denmark and probably all of Europe. And it just, there's just no good reason for it. So it just makes me urg

Kalpita

Yeah. When I think about it a bit rationally, then it's also Denmark saying that, hey, if you're not from a so called third world country, then you can be from America, for example, you can be Australia, for example, or you can come from, I don't know, whatever other countries are remaining, South America for that matter. Then you are probably receiving an easy authorization because you're a country we like, you're a country we, we want people from and we trust your education, but we don't trust education in, in whatever other countries. I understand that education levels are not the same, but I do not get, then why start a training program, for example, in, in India for Indian nurses. Having said that, they also say that if you do get an authorization, it's not necessarily that you will be a nurse, you will then maybe be a SOSU or something else in the healthcare system that we need help with. So it's not that we need nurses specifically with specific skills, but we, we just need healthcare professionals. Then it doesn't matter whether you're from a third world country or not. And that I think is ridiculous because, for example, as a patient, if I had to go to a hospital or seek any service from the healthcare touchwood, or for that, for that matter, anybody, everybody wants to meet a professional. And when you are in a situation that you can't do anything about, like being in bed in the middle of a hospital, you want the best of the best. You want professionals. You want people who know what they're doing, how they're doing it, and are experts in what they're doing. Nobody sleeping in their hospital bed thinks, oh, this person is from a third world country. This person is black. This person is, oh, she's Danish, or, oh, he comes from America. Nobody thinks like that. I mean, that's so ridiculous.

Katie

I think I'd be a little afraid of an American doctor if they're from certain regions. I'd be like, please don't ask me to take any opioids. Like, there's, there's bigger risks than, oh, their skin color is different.

Kalpita

Exactly.

Katie

So this, it's a heavy, heavy topic.

Kalpita

Yeah. I mean, this new also, they just call it a new quota system. It's like we get reservations like, yeah, okay, you, you come in, in the bottom quota, where out of your 5, 000 applications, we take maybe 5, 15 people because only those were able to get an authorization because we are so good and we have such high standards.

Katie

You’re in line with our amazing standards. 

Kalpita

Yeah precisely 

Katie

Yeah. That you couldn't possibly measure up to.

Kalpita

Precisely. So it's, it's, it's biased, but it's also not well thought through. I think they, they need to do better. They probably need to get more professionals who understand the healthcare system on board to really make these policies. Yeah, I think I'll just leave it at that before I say something I'll regret later.

Katie

Yeah, I think they need to get better at their wording as well, because I feel like Denmark used to be better at saying, we're gonna do this. And you'd be like, I think that's racist. Is that racist? Whereas this is just like, okay, this just, this just feels blatantly racist. But you're right, you're right. Let's. We'll go on to the second topic because we could talk for days and this is talking about where there we should be spending money on free school meals versus cheaper sweets. So this is off the back of a recommendation for the new finance bill for 2026, which is looking to get rid of the coffee and candy taxes, which are worth 2.6 billion DKK. And some teachers are rightfully kind of coming out along with experts to say, would this money not be better used to give healthy lunches for kids in schools. And in this particular article, it's in the newsletter they're talking about a school where teachers are bringing in extra food to make sure children are getting the food they need in some areas. So it's, it's kind of both a question of are we putting this money in the right place? Why is the government picking candy over children and eating and you know, general well being, but also where are Denmark's priorities? If we're like cool candy is cheaper but children are missing out on nutrition.

Kalpita

See, that's what I mean. Getting in professionals to actually make the decisions. Right. We are talking to teachers. Teachers are having a say in this because they're the ones in the front line doing the most, one of the most noble jobs out there. And they have also shared that kids, most kids, I think it's four. Every fourth child comes to school hungry, that is without breakfast. And that's, that's important because a child, it, it makes such a big difference to have breakfast and go to school. It’s, it speaks of social imbalance, it speaks of families that have few resources and, and a worse starting point for a kid to go into school without breakfast is a hungry, is an empty stomach. It, if you're not full, it's not helping you learn. You're not having a good day and you're not grasping what's going on in school. Not that in Danish school you're just sitting with books and pens. But even still you have, you have handful of kids who have energetic, who understand what's going on, who are sharp, who are present. And then you have kids who are malnourished more or less who come to school without breakfast and, and are really compromising on the entire day and not getting enough out of school as all kids are getting. So I'm voting for free meals in schools.

Katie

Yeah, I have to say I was a bit confused on this one because I also was just like obviously feeding children is very important. Why would anyone say no, no cheaper sweets makes more sense. So I went to of course the trusted source chat GPT and I was like, what's happening here? Dear tiny robot, please tell me what I'm missing. And it did make the valid point that if you give children free healthy lunches, that only benefits families with children and it doesn't benefit the entire population. Whereas if you do like tax cut to these products like coffee and candy that everybody buys, even if we pretend that we don't, that benefits every single household. And I do think it is important to have that part of the conversation in the sense that rates are declining. I know more and more of my friends are saying they don't want to have children, it doesn't work for them. And then that means that any benefits that we bring in regarding children, whether that's the child's first sick day or second sick day or free lunches for kids in schools, there's a huge part of, well, a part of the population that's growing to be bigger and bigger each year that is not getting any benefit from that. So I do see the struggle there. That being said, I 100% agree with you. We obviously need children who are able to learn, have the ability to take in the information, but also just have the energy to enjoy their lives and enjoy their day and their learning. And it's a much like, longer term social benefit than just candy's a little bit cheaper. So we're all gonna have 1,000 more kroner, you know, here and there, because we, eh maybe we'll all just buy more chocolate. It's hard to know. But either way, obviously feeding children is really, really important because those children grow up and they then contribute to society. And the better they do in school, the better they're going to do in society, the more they're going to contribute. Hopefully. Looking at you, Jeff Bezos, but. So it's one of those things where, like, I see why they've gone this way. And it is in response to the fact that Denmark has the second highest grocery bill in Europe. Only I think it's Luxembourg beats us. Which surprised at that. I thought it would be Switzerland. I think I said that the last time I talked about this as well. So I think it's, it's that kind of short term. Let's give everybody a little bit more money while we're figuring out what to do. But I think long term, absolutely free lunches that are healthy. I think healthy is also the key thing because I know my partner is a teacher and she often gets lunch at the school and so often she's like, I'm still hungry afterwards. This was not a balanced meal. There was no protein, there were no vegetables sometimes because, you know, Danish food. So it is. There's also kind of a case of who's making sure that these are healthy meals, Are their nutritionists involved? Who's monitoring to make sure they stay healthy? Who's then making sure that the budget is going where it's supposed to in regards to children's meal? So I think it might be more a case of scrapping the candy taxes. A quick easy win for everybody. And then the healthy lunches is just going to take a little bit more time. I hope, I hope it comes in. I really do enjoy when children aren't hungry.

Kalpita

I mean, I don't know why coffee is clubbed with chocolate and candy.

Katie

Maybe it's adult candy.

Kalpita

Yeah, I mean I don't, I most certainly don't want to pay 90k for 120 cups glass of coffee for sure. But I can compromise on not having enough coffee in my kitchen if, if that means that children in school are going to get a free meal. Now there are schools that do get a free meal, but that's because the parents are paying into that service just like we do in, in our workplaces for lunches. Right, Here's a news report I'm reading where SF and the Danish Social Democrats have allocated 800 million kroner to conduct an experiment with school meals for the next three years. And that means there's in addition to the school called LBS School, there are 190 other schools across the country who are allowed to be part of this free meal trial. It's a total of 346 schools that have applied for this experiment and it is aiming to provide better conditions for health, well being and learning at school. But if the government instead allocated 2.6 billion which they now plan to spend on low, lowering taxes as you said, on permanent free school meals instead, it would have a major health benefit, obviously. I mean that's a no brainer, right? At the same time it, in this experiment they have also found out that not just that the students come hungry, but teachers are sharing their meals with kids. So I understand when your partner says that she's not getting enough, but imagine the teachers who bring food from home are sharing their meal with the students because the students are not getting a mad pack or they're not getting food from home. So it is, I would have assumed was a serious thing for people sitting in the government and taking these decisions that this would absolutely be a no brainer. But let's see what happened across the world, right? There are free meals, free school meals in India, Indonesia, Japan, UK, Finland and everybody has come out with positive results for kids and students. There was another news piece I saw on, on, on TV. Sorry I don't own TV but on, on the computer when I was trying to follow the news in Denmark. And it's not just young children that are going to school, but also adolescent Kids, even if they get a lunch pack, they are not eating their lunches because peer pressure, beauty standards as well as they're so engrossed in what they're doing, playing around or whatever it is, that they forget eating their food. And that's also becoming a concern. So it seems like there's a pattern of malnutrition that could be a long term effect in the Danish society if they don't look at it that way. I would also kindly advise people making decisions in the parliament to involve some scientists who can actually give you some knowledge on what could work, what couldn't work, and consequently also get the parents to weigh in a bit of what actually is going on. Because it is concerning.

Katie

Yeah, what are the issues?

Kalpita

Yeah, it is concerning if kids are not eating food.

Katie

I think as well, if you think about, you know, if the meals are provided in school, there's so many early warning signs that can be spotted because if someone has, is struggling with an eating disorder or at the beginnings of an eating disorder and they're like, oh, I just ate my lunch, or everyone has a different lunch so no one's paying attention, whereas everyone's expecting to kind of eat the same kind of stuff. You'll notice if someone's eating a bit differently. I also saw, and maybe it was kind of in line with what you were talking about in terms of looking at school children and whether they're eating or not. And what they've found is that, and this is a study that was done in Denmark, I forget where I saw it. It was definitely tik tok on my partner's tik tok that she translated for me. But it was, it was a study, but they found that young people who aren't eating is more like adolescent age range. When they're not eating, they have much slower self worth than those who are eating. And that's again, it could be peer pressure, it could be insecurity about eating around other people, it could be because it's a weight thing or it could be just they care less about their own health and well being and energy and they're not paying as much attention to that as the voices are in their head. So there's, there's kind of early warning symptoms of mental health issues that will have a much longer impact on the person, but also on society. You know, in the end, if these things aren't like, obviously people are very important, but just putting on my government hat, it will cost money if these things aren't spotted early on to society. So there's a lot of benefits to this. So we can all agree that we at last week at Denmark, like when children have enough food, isn't that nice?

Kalpita

Absolutely. And we love kids. Like we've said that before as well. Yeah. Did you ever get food in school? How did it work for you?

Katie

No, I think there was food that you could buy sandwiches there, but they were horrendous. Like in Ireland they think just putting butter on bread is enough. And there was so much butter. I never bought them. My mom always made me lunch and then she'd like. We had little lunch bags and she'd draw little faces on them.

Kalpita

Oh, my sweet. We had. 

Katie

Did you get lunch in school?

Kalpita 

Yeah. We didn't have school lunches like the school made for us, but we bought lunches from home. I was always jealous of students or my friends who could go home for lunch breaks if they lived close by, so they could go out of school, go home, eat food and come back to school. I thought that was so cool that they could do that. And we also had some students who got lunches delivered from home. So you got fresh, warm food, especially of. Of students whose, of course, mums were stay at home mums or something like that. And they would have a service that delivered food for them. Oh, my God. Absolutely. 

Katie

Living the high life.

Kalpita

Yeah, absolutely. Delicious, Yummy, warm food.

Katie

But you're unprepared for life, though, because there's a lot of substandard lunch food in the world and they're not ready if they're getting that standard at school.

Kalpita

Exactly.

Katie

But yeah. So let's move on to our last topic, which is cheaper bus tickets spark debate in Aarhus. So this is a proposal. The mayor wants to copy Odense's 15 Danish kroner ticket scheme, which boosted passenger numbers by 15% without costing extra within Odense, so Aarhus wants to do the same. Critics are saying, do you really think that's going to make people leave their cars? Are we just going to make people who are already walking or cycling get onto buses? Because it's going to be a bit cheaper. And. Yeah, so they're kind of. If you really. It's kind of like, okay, that's nice. You can make it cheaper if you want, but are you actually shifting anything, making anything better for the environment? Are things getting any greener or is it kind of the same? What do you think?

Kalpita

I'm.

Katie

Do you cycle? Do you walk?

Kalpita

I'm a huge public transport person. I don't bike. Yeah, I walk. I like walking as well, but I'm not a fan of walking in the countryside as, as nice and as scenic as it is, winters would probably be quite challenging. So I do like this idea of making bus travel or public transport cheaper. I say make it free. Yeah, but I think there's. In the countryside there's more concern about accessibility and connectivity. So it's not just about making it cheaper to take a bus. It's also about do the bus have enough frequency for people to take that service. And do the buses also go to places that they want to go? They don't probably have enough connectivity to the city center, for example, or the city, for example, if you're in a small town and you want have access to the city. And the other thing is also most people go into the city for, for special things. Nobody is just up and into the city like one would. In Copenhagen, for example, every weekend you make a trip to trip into the inter center of town. Or every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday you're there. So practically half your week you're living almost in the center of town because there's stuff happening or you're meeting friends or anything. But that's different in, in the countryside. And I suppose the connectivity and accessibility would be a priority for people living there, I would assume also why they have so many cars that they use. It’s, I mean, if you go into town to shop for the week, for example, or get something special from the supermarket that's not available in your nearest Koopman, then you need a car because you have to lug all of that. So there are. There are some nuances in this, I think, but as a start, I think it's a great idea.

Katie

Yeah, I think making stuff cheaper is always nice. But I agree, like I'm in Aarhus and kind of thinking about, I hate public transport. I would walk everywhere if I had the choice. Basically, if it's within an hour, I'll walk. If it's any longer, then I'm like, okay, that makes me seem like a crazy person. I hate the bus. And then we have the bus, the Letbane and the, the DSB trains. My partner takes the bus. She works in Randers half the time and then in Rønde, which is just outside Aarhus, the other half. And basically she's been back to work for almost a month now and she has had so many problems with just trying to get to work on time. So I actually think it's more of a reliability problem when it comes to a city less connected like Aarhus. Like we don't have the fancy Copenhagen metro that goes every Three seconds to every single part of the city. I do think a lot of the buses. I think the problem is it's very well connected in the city. But once you get out of the city, then it gets a lot less connected. Like I have a friend in Galten, which is, it’s 45 minutes by bus. It's really not far. It's 30 minutes if you drive. She can only get one bus per hour. So once you kind of move outside the city limits, it gets very, very difficult. But I think what's a bigger problem is just sometimes the bus won't go or the Letbane won't come, or. My partner was on a train last week and they were like, we don't have a driver, so we will be late leaving. The driver was on his way. It's like, how do you have a train and not have a driver? And then the train started to move and then it stopped because there was a signal problem, whatever that means. And then another day, she was waiting for the Letbane and it just disappeared off the screen. So it's like, oh, it's coming, it's coming. Gone. And I had a similar kind of. As I said, I hate the bus I would get. There was a 12 bus that would go. I'd have to walk a little bit, get the bus, and then took me directly to the door at work. So if I was like running a bit late or I slept in, I would get the 12 every single time without fail. It was late, it was never on time. If any other service in the world was this unreliable, it would not exist. Imagine if you went to a coffee shop and they're like, umm we're just not going to do coffee for the next two hours.

Kalpita

Yeah, I mean, we're open but no coffee 

Katie

Yeah, you can stand here if you like, but you can't get anything, unfortunately. And so I think the standard of the public transport is a bigger problem than the cost. I do think again. If you're outside the city, it is so expensive. My hairdresser was saying she lives just outside the city. Again, 30 minute drive, if even. And it's cheaper for her to drive in and out every day than it is to get the bus. So why would she ever take the bus? Yeah, that's what, you know, it's more convenient with the. Even taking it down to 15 kroner. It's like, well, the car is so much more convenient. You need to give people a lot more to make them. And also sometimes the bus is terrible. There's other people on the bus. So I feel like you almost need to be compensated to go on it.

Kalpita

Well, that that is the downside of buses is that there are other people, but that's what makes it more sustainable in terms of environment, that there are more people that can take one transport system than each individual household taking a car, for example. But, and, and that's exactly what I mean. If there is not enough accessibility, the schedules are not worked on, there's no frequency, people are not going to use it. So making it cheap maybe is the first step, but then there's a lot more work that needs to get done before making it cheaper. So making things cheap just because we're closer to the election is. Yeah, I think you take people for a fool.

Katie

Yeah, there's a couple of things in the run up and I know it's the nature of elections, but there are some things they're doing where I'm just like, this just feels like a cheap attempt to be like, vote for me. Maybe it'll be cheaper. Maybe.

Kalpita

Yeah, for now we'll vote for school, free school meals and better healthcare system with professional nurses, no matter where they come from.

Katie

Yes. Or just either just a quota for everybody or no quota. Like I don't understand why we need to specify if the quote is that important, but I digress. But yeah, those are our topics for this week. Thank you so much for your time and your rage and it's been a really good chat today.

Kalpita

Likewise. Thank you for this riveting conversation.

Katie

And Until next time, I'll see you soon.

Kalpita

Until next time, see you.

Katie

Thanks everybody.

Kalpita

Hey, this is Kalpita and Golda, cohosts of the Last Week in Denmark podcast. Did you know Last Week in Denmark offers sponsored content in the newsletter. Our reporters are producing original articles and content tailored for internationals in Denmark. 

Golda

So if you have a business our readers should know about, let us write about it. Get in touch with us at reporter@lwid.dk . You can also reach out to us on LinkedIn and Instagram @lastweekendenmark.

People on this episode

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LWID

Host
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Kalpita Bhosale

Guest
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Katie Burns

Guest