[worklaptopacct]

I feel this inability to blend in is a thing in most of Europe. A non-white person will always be perceived as an other by a significant portion of the society. I've had two friends in Germany, born and raised here, one with an African parent and the other with an Asian parent. They told me it's an everyday occurrence that people will immediately switch to English with them and won't be convinced even after they reply in native German. There's a joke here that if you are born to Western immigrants then you are called bilingual, otherwise you have a migration background.

Other than that, my parents (arguably living in a small town in Poland) always need to comment on a person's race when they see someone non-white representing an European country in a competition they watch on the television. I imagine many Germans hold that sentiment too, it's just that it's less socially acceptable to say that out loud.

[EEBio]

In Denmark the situation is a tad different. A lot of immigrants of Middle Eastern descent have rather poor English and their Danish is much better (they need to be somewhat fluent in Danish in order to stay). Their kids’ English is however on par with “native” Dane’s kids.

The inability to blend in, IMO, is primarily language based. I have a better hold of Danish than most of my international friends and I have also felt more welcome in Denmark than them. Folks that have been in Denmark for 5 years longer, are even more homey in Denmark IME (regardless of skin colour, mind you).

This is obviously anecdotal evidence, I am sure there are some older folks that aren’t as accepting (my friends are generally young, as I am). But still, a lot of them can be open minded. I am reminded of this story a friend of mine has told me. She ran an org helping immigrants in Denmark and one of the activities she organised was connecting immigrants willing to learn the language with older folks in care homes who longed to speak to more people. An older resident lady has told her once that while she is not keen on those immigrants from Middle East, Muhammad is a very nice person whom she enjoyed spending time with. So much about accepting other cultures and people is about exposure (probably why cities are more liberal than countryside)

[worklaptopacct]

I think English knowledge is a generational thing, irrelevant of background. People who migrated earlier had to learn the local language, because English knowledge was not prevalent back then. Their kids are just like all the others, and speak English because it's a must in a globalized world.

I think that a major issue for people who are not fluent in the local language is that it's always an effort for the group to switch to a foreign language. People's English skills differ, and some of them might have it harder to articulate themselves. I personally think that the burden is on you to learn the language and not on them to learn English - as a guest, you should honor the house rules, just like you are expected to respect local laws and customs. If you plan to stay, learning to speak the language is a must. I've seen many fellow expats try to skip this hurdle though, taking classes to reach some minimum required level (here it's B1 if you want to attain a German citizenship) and then going back to expecting everyone to accommodate for them. Some people I know have been living here for close to a decade and they still struggle to order food.