Pardue, Derek, Are You in the Club? The Contested Role of the Night for Muslim Immigrant Youth in Aarhus, Denmark, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2022, 1–17
This article investigates spatial belonging and how qualifiers of the night and darkness inform policies and experiences of migrant living in contemporary Denmark. I focus on ‘youth clubs’ (Ungdomsklubber), a network of state and community sponsored buildings located in periphery neighbourhoods within Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark. My approach to the youth clubs is in terms of nocturnal geographies, as ‘the night’ is not only a temporal category but also a spatial one. Beyond the specificities of this case study, I argue that migration scholars should give critical attention to nocturnality, within a strategic intersectional approach, as a contested ecology that generates differentiated value. As a time–space, the night helps define the legitimacy of occupations, passages, visibilities and other kinds of presence in the city thereby providing insight into migrant experiences and the problematic nature of immigration and ‘integration’ policies.