At least 70 of the 150 bakeries in Copenhagen are run by immigrants, according to the Copenhagen Baker's Guild. There is a similar tendency in Århus, where for every bakery sold goes to a baker of foreign origin. This development is primarly due to that it's easy to take over a bakery. It requires no education, and it's easy to make money off it.
Many Danes refrain from buying them since baking is a business with a long working day and administrative hassles, says Carsten Wickmann, manager of employee organization BKD. This creates a place for immigrants, who often have difficulties establishing themselves in the Danish job market, explains Anika Liversage, immigrant researcher at the Danish National Center for Social Research.
Many immigrant families have adapted to the father working long and during the night, and that the wife, children and other relatives help in the store. The family construct today is almost a requirement for small businesses like kiosks, greengrocers and now also bakeries.
Anika Liversage rejects the idea that national foods will be a hindrance. Muslims have sold bacon and beer in kiosks for decades and they have no problems selling Danish pastries.
The national bakery guild is not as optimistic. Carsten Wickmann says that they have often seen that products from uneducated bakers don't live up to the Danish standard. That type is quickly reported, and when a baker is first stamped as bad, it goes down very fast. He thinks that the bakers who don't know Danish crafts can be very successful if they instead concentrate more of their own national baking traditions. He thinks that at the same this can also prevent a dilution of the Danish baking tradition.
Source: Kristeligt Dagblad (Danish) h/t Uriasposten (Danish)
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