Trampoline House
A refugee justice community center focussed on ensuring a sustainable integration in Denmark
Initiator(s)
M. Goll, J. Hamou, and T.O. Nielsen, refugees, undocumented migrants, students, cultural producers and migration justice activists
Description
Trampoline House is a user-driven refugee justice community initiative located in the centre of Copenhagen, where refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and other residents of Denmark find support to navigate the Danish migration system. The project operates as a non-profit and self-organised platform for social interaction and solidarity building. Users are encouraged to share their skills and interests, so Trampoline House can provide an internship program, education and legal counselling according to their needs. Users are offered a transportation reimbursement from the asylum seekers centre to Trampoline House twice per week in order to take part in the internship program. The internships are organised around two main aspects such as practical work and education. Interns should offer one day of labour at the house (such as helping at the help desk, cooking the daily meals, taking care of the children, and cleaning) in exchange for an educational program which provides language classes, democracy classes, and classes focused on empowering refugee women. Trampoline House also offers legal counselling and escorts people to interviews with immigration officers. Trampoline House had an exhibition space, CAMP - centre for Art on Migration Politics (2015-2020), focusing on the work of artists with migration or refugee backgrounds whose practices generate dialogue and exchange with the public through political migration art. The aim of CAMP was to offer a space for imagining, inspiring and exhibiting art as a tool to influence and transform migration policies and laws in Denmark.
Context
The project supports asylum seekers navigating immigration laws in Denmark. When migrants arrive in the country, they are temporarily hosted by asylum centres while authorities establish their identities. Asylum seeker centres are often housed either in former military barracks or former mental hospitals located far from the city centre, which causes isolation from organisations that could offer them support. While people are waiting for their applications to be processed, they can’t work or get an education; the state provides some pocket money to buy food and personal care items. If the application is approved, authorities assign a location where migrants should go and settle, while going through a 3-years integration program. In case the application is rejected, it is possible to appeal, which implies that one needs legal support and counseling. If the application doesn’t go through an appeal, people are first encouraged to leave voluntarily, and if they can’t leave, they are transferred to a deportation centre. Denmark is not allowed to deport people who are from countries that do not have a repatriation agreement with the state, so one might stay in a deportation centre forever without getting any support.
How to use it
Asylum seekers and refugees are encouraged to go to Trampoline House to get the support they need. Users can get legal counselling with a lawyer who is permanently employed at the house, and they can get escorted to interviews. Trampoline House is part of a network of organizations to strengthen its position in the context of immigration rights. Such organisations are Folkebevægelsen for asylbørns fremtid, which works to ensure a safe childhood for asylum-seeking children; Danish Fundraising Association ISOBRO; the United Nations TOGETHER campaign to change negative narratives on migration and to strengthen the social cohesion between host communities and refugees and migrants.
Goals
To offer asylum seekers the opportunity to be a part of a community, to educate themselves, and build relations within Danish society while they wait for their asylum application to be analysed. To provide asylum seekers tools such as job training and education, democratic practice, counselling and system awareness, and a social network. To break the social isolation that most refugees, asylum seekers, and undocumented migrants in Denmark experience, and to inform them about the system that surrounds them in order to provide agency and tools to bettering and support their social and legal situation. To inform the Danish public about the experiences of refugees, asylum seekers, and undocumented migrants who live in the Danish asylum camps, in an attempt to motivate the public to advocate to reform the Danish refugee and asylum policies. Ultimately, the project aims at realising an ideal asylum system, where refugee families are offered accommodation and a community garden with other people who are not part of any asylum seeker program.
Beneficial outcomes
All services and activities are free and draw on the skills, knowledge, and competencies present among the users of the house and volunteering professionals. Users are offered transportation costs reimbursement twice a week to reach the house from the asylum seeker centres. 79% of the funds are spent on activities and advocacy, 8.5% on transport for asylum seekers and 12,5% in administration. Trampoline House is constantly lobbying with the Red Cross which administers the camps, to assure better conditions for refugees. Trampoline House was invited to be part of the curatorial committee of documenta 15.
Julia Suárez-Krabbe (2019), Anti-Racist Resistance and Political Existence in Denmark: Trampoline House and CAMP, [online] Visible Project
Location
Denmark
Field
1:1 scale, Extraterritorial Reciprocity, Use-It-Together
Strategy
Legislative Change, Human Rights, Migrant Crisis
Users
The artists, refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, volunteering artists, activists, lawyers, students, and theorists from Denmark and abroad.
Maintained by
Initial supporters were private donors, private and public foundations (among others OAK Foundation Denmark). The project is maintained by a donors scheme. It has been awarded the LIVIA prisen 2016, the Bispebjerg Lokaludvalgs Frivilighedspris 2016, the Yggdrasil-prisen 2015 and the Hal Koch Prisen 2011.
Duration
2010 - 2020
Coefficient of Arte Util
80%
Category
Scientific
Pedagogical
Politics
Urban Development
Economy
Environment
Social
