The Teenage Ambassadors: The cultural impact of institutionally and privately organized exchanges of students, young farmers and youth in general between Denmark and the United States since the end of WWII.

Authors

Karsten Kjer Michaelsen

Keywords

cultural exchange, student exchange, youth

Abstract

The little more than 300.000 Danes who emigrated to America between 1870 and World War II created a solid foundation for the cultural exchange between the United States and Denmark in many different ways. This exchange takes place on a family level as well as in a professionally managed way via a number of organizations which arrange longer visits in private homes for students, young farmers, and youth in general within the two countries. This paper deals with this aspect of the Danish-American cultural exchange in order to see how and to what extend the exchange students and other young people become what one could call teenage ambassadors. How many organizations are involved in this work? Who are they? What is their background? How were they started? How many persons have been exchanged over the years? How many of them take up permanent residence? What are the future perspectives?

Recommended Citation

Michaelsen, Karsten Kjer (2004) "The Teenage Ambassadors: The cultural impact of institutionally and privately organized exchanges of students, young farmers and youth in general between Denmark and the United States since the end of WWII.," The Bridge: Vol. 27: No. 1, Article 13.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thebridge/vol27/iss1/13