Tag: health

Gove et al. The challenges of achieving timely diagnosis and culturally appropriate care of people with dementia from minority ethnic groups in Europe. (2021) [PDF]

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Gove, D., Nielsen, T. R., Smits, C., Plejert, C., Rauf, M. A., Parveen, S., Jaakson, S., Golan-Shemesh, D., Lahav, D., Kaur, R., Herz, M. K., Monsees, J., Thyrian, J. R., & Georges, J. The challenges of achieving timely diagnosis and culturally appropriate care of people with dementia from minority ethnic groups in Europe. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 36(12), 2021, 1823–1828.

In a just society, everyone should have equal access to healthcare in terms of prevention, assessment, diagnosis, treatment and care. Europe is a multicultural society made up of people who identify with a wide range of ethnic groups. Many older people from minority ethnic groups also have a direct migration background. Several studies have shown that there is a lack of equity in relation to dementia diagnoses and care because equal opportunities do not necessarily translate into equal outcomes. An expert ethics working group led by Alzheimer Europe has produced an extensive report on this issue, a policy brief and a guide for health and social care workers. In this brief summary, the authors/members of the expert working group present some of the key challenges and recommendations for healthcare clinicians striving to provide timely diagnosis and good quality care and treatment to people with dementia from all ethnic groups.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5614

Haderup Larsen, Mikkel & Schaeffer, Merlin. Healthcare chauvinism during the COVID-19 pandemic. (2021). [PDF]

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Haderup Larsen, Mikkel & Schaeffer, Merlin. Healthcare chauvinism during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 47(7), 2021, 1455–1473.

Social science research has produced evidence of welfare chauvinism whereby citizens turn against social policies that disproportionately benefit immigrants and their descendants. Some policymakers advocate welfare chauvinism as a means to incentivize fast labour market integration and assimilation into the mainstream more generally. These contested arguments about integration incentives can hardly be extended to the case of hospital treatment of an acute COVID-19 infection. On that premise we conducted a pre-registered online survey experiment among a representative sample of the Danish population about healthcare chauvinism against recent immigrants and Muslim minorities during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic of spring 2020. Our results show no evidence of blatant racism-driven healthcare chauvinism against acute COVID-19 patients with a Muslim name who were born in Denmark. However, we do find evidence of healthcare chauvinism against patients with a Danish/Nordic name who immigrated to Denmark only a year ago. Moreover, healthcare chauvinism against recently immigrated COVID-19 patients doubles in strength if they have a Muslim name. Our findings thus suggest that there is general reciprocity-motivated welfare chauvinism against recent immigrants who have not contributed to the welfare state for long and that racism against Muslims strongly catalyses this form of welfare chauvinism.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1860742

PDF: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348057345_Healthcare_chauvinism_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic

Graugaard, Naja Dyrendom, & Høgfeldt, Amalie Ambrosius. The silenced genocide: Why the Danish intrauterine device (IUD) enforcement in Kalaallit Nunaat calls for an intersectional decolonial analysis. (2023) [PDF]

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Graugaard, Naja Dyrendom, & Høgfeldt, Amalie Ambrosius. The silenced genocide: Why the Danish intrauterine device (IUD) enforcement in Kalaallit Nunaat calls for an intersectional decolonial analysis. Kvinder, Køn & Forskning, 35(2), 2023, 162–167.

From introduction:

In 2022, it was publicly revealed that Danish authorities have initiated and performed coercive insertions of intrauterine devices (IUDs) in Kalaallit women and adolescents, beginning in the 1960s. This has brought forth public and political calls to action, and an offi cial Danish-Greenlandic commission has been established to investigate this hitherto silenced history (Naalakkersuisut 2023).As feminist scholars of postcolonial and de-colonial studies (one of us Danish/Kalaaleq, one of us non-Kalaaleq), we urge the forthcoming investigations to considerthe colonial, racial, and gendered mechanisms of the IUD enforcement prac-tice, and the narratives around it. We hold that apt analysis of Danish IUD coercion and campaigning, its past workings and present consequences, requires specific attention towards how different modes of power and oppression intersect in Danish colonial strategies in Kalaallit Nunaat. While the gendered and racial dynamics of Danish colo-nization is seldomly analyzed (Loftsdó ttir & Jensen 2012;Petterson 2012; 2014; Andersen, Hvenegård-Lassen & Knobblock 2015; Ambrosius 2020; 2022), we argue that the history (and presence) of reproductive control of Kalaallit indeed points to the intimate relations between colonialism, racism, and patriarchy in Danish colonial practices.

PDF: https://tidsskrift.dk/KKF/article/view/137309

Damsted Rasmussen, Trine, Sarah Fredsted Villadsen, Per Kragh Andersen, Signe Smith Jervelund, and Anne-Marie Nybo Andersen. Social and ethnic disparities in stillbirth and infant death in Denmark, 2005–2016. (2021). [PDF]

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Damsted Rasmussen, Trine, Sarah Fredsted Villadsen, Per Kragh Andersen, Signe Smith Jervelund, and Anne-Marie Nybo Andersen. Social and ethnic disparities in stillbirth and infant death in Denmark, 2005–2016. Scientific Reports, 11, 8001, 2021.

Ethnic disparity in stillbirth and infant death has been demonstrated in Europe. As the relation between migration and health change over time, this population based register study investigated the recent figures and explored if potential differences could be explained by the well-known educational and income inequalities in stillbirth and infant death using a novel approach. Stillbirth and infant mortality varied considerably according to country of origin, with only immigrants from China, Norway, and Poland having an overall lower risk than Danish women. Women of Pakistani, Turkish, and Somali origin had a particularly high risk of both outcomes. Women from recent high conflict areas displayed a pattern with increased stillbirth risk. An observed excess risks across generations was found, which is disturbing and rule out factors related to language barriers or newness. Differences in educational level and household income explained only part of the observed inequalities. Strengthening of the maternity care system to better understand and meet the needs of immigrant women seems needed to mitigate the disparities.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87084-3

Halberg, Nina, Trine S. Larsen & Mari Holen. Ethnic minority patients in healthcare from a Scandinavian welfare perspective: The case of Denmark. (2022) [PDF]

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Halberg, Nina, Larsen, Trine S., & Holen, Mari. Ethnic minority patients in healthcare from a Scandinavian welfare perspective: The case of Denmark. Nursing Inquiry, 29(1), 2022.

The Scandinavian welfare states are known for their universal access to healthcare; however, health inequalities affecting ethnic minority patients are prevalent. Ethnic minority patients’ encounters with healthcare systems are often portrayed as part of a system that represents objectivity and neutrality. However, the Danish healthcare sector is a political apparatus that is affected by policies and conceptualisations. Health policies towards ethnic minorities are analysed using Bacchi’s policy analysis, to show how implicit problem representations are translated from political and societal discourses into the Danish healthcare system. Our analysis shows that health policies are based on different ideas of who ethnic minority patients are and what kinds of challenges they entail. Two main issues are raised: First, ethnic minorities are positioned as bearers of ‘culture’ and ‘ethnicity’. These concepts of ‘othering’ become both explanations for and the cause of inappropriate healthcare behaviour. Second, the Scandinavian welfare states are known for their solidarity, collectivism, equality and tolerance, also grounded in a postracial, colour-blind and noncolonial past ideology that forms the societal self-image. Combined with the ethical and legal responsibility of healthcare professionals to treat all patients equally, our findings indicate little leeway for addressing the discrimination experienced by ethnic minority patients.

PDF: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ftr/10.1111/nin.12457

Høeg Næraa, Astrid Marie, Dorthe Susanne Nielsen & Morten Sodemann. Patient-physician agreement among vulnerable ethnic minority patients in Denmark. (2021). [PDF]

~ mortenstinus

Høeg Næraa, A. M., Nielsen, D. S., & Sodemann, M. (2021). Patient-physician agreement among vulnerable ethnic minority patients in Denmark. Danish Medical Journal, 68(11).

INTRODUCTION Medical doctors in Denmark are clinically challenged by ethnic minority patients, resulting in delayed or incorrect treatments. Apart from language barriers, little is known about the nature of the challenges presented by ethnic minority patients. The present study investigated the level of agreement between the patients’ main problems,doctors’ referral notes and patient-reported problems documented at a hospital-based migrant health outpatient clinic.

PDF: https://ugeskriftet.dk/patient-physician-agreement-among-vulnerable-ethnic-minority-patients-denmark

Dunlavy, Andrea, Karl Gauffin, Lisa Berg, Christopher Jamil De Montgomery, Ryan Europa, Ketil Eide, et al. Health outcomes in young adulthood among former child refugees in Denmark, Norway and Sweden: A cross-country comparative study. (2021) [PDF]

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Dunlavy, A., Gauffin, K., Berg, L., De Montgomery, C. J., Europa, R., Eide, K., Ascher, H., & Hjern, A. (2021). Health outcomes in young adulthood among former child refugees in Denmark, Norway and Sweden: A cross-country comparative study. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 51(3), 2021, 330-338.

Dunlavy, Andrea, Karl Gauffin, Lisa Berg, Christopher Jamil De Montgomery, Ryan Europa, Ketil Eide, and others, Health Outcomes in Young Adulthood among Former Child Refugees in Denmark, Norway and Sweden: A Cross-Country Comparative Study, Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 2021.

Aims:This study aimed at comparing several health outcomes in young adulthood among child refugees who settled in the different immigration and integration policy contexts of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.Methods:The study population included refugees born between 1972 and 1997 who immigrated before the age of 18 and settled in the three Nordic countries during 1986?2005. This population was followed up in national registers during 2006?2015 at ages 18?43 years and was compared with native-born majority populations in the same birth cohorts using sex-stratified and age-adjusted regression analyses.Results:Refugee men in Denmark stood out with a consistent pattern of higher risks for mortality, disability/illness pension, psychiatric care and substance misuse relative to native-born majority Danish men, with risk estimates being higher than comparable estimates observed among refugee men in Norway and Sweden. Refugee men in Sweden and Norway also demonstrated increased risks relative to native-born majority population men for inpatient psychiatric care, and in Sweden also for disability/illness pension. With the exception of increased risk for psychotic disorders, outcomes among refugee women were largely similar to or better than those of native-born majority women in all countries.Conclusions:The observed cross-country differences in health indicators among refugees, and the poorer health outcomes of refugee men in Denmark in particular, may be understood in terms of marked differences in Nordic integration policies. However, female refugees in all three countries had better relative health outcomes than refugee men did, suggesting possible sex differentials that warrant further investigation.

Aims: This study aimed at comparing several health outcomes in young adulthood among child refugees who settled in the different immigration and integration policy contexts of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Methods:The study population included refugees born between 1972 and 1997 who immigrated before the age of 18 and settled in the three Nordic countries during 1986-2005. This population was followed up in national registers during 2006-2015 at ages 18?43 years and was compared with native-born majority populations in the same birth cohorts using sex-stratified and age-adjusted regression analyses.

Results:Refugee men in Denmark stood out with a consistent pattern of higher risks for mortality, disability/illness pension, psychiatric care and substance misuse relative to native-born majority Danish men, with risk estimates being higher than comparable estimates observed among refugee men in Norway and Sweden. Refugee men in Sweden and Norway also demonstrated increased risks relative to native-born majority population men for inpatient psychiatric care, and in Sweden also for disability/illness pension. With the exception of increased risk for psychotic disorders, outcomes among refugee women were largely similar to or better than those of native-born majority women in all countries.

Conclusions: The observed cross-country differences in health indicators among refugees, and the poorer health outcomes of refugee men in Denmark in particular, may be understood in terms of marked differences in Nordic integration policies. However, female refugees in all three countries had better relative health outcomes than refugee men did, suggesting possible sex differentials that warrant further investigation.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.1177/14034948211031408

Badre-Esfahani, Sara, Lone Kjeld Petersen, Camilla Rahr Tatari, Jan Blaakær, Berit Andersen, and Lene Seibæk. Perceptions of cervical cancer prevention among a group of ethnic minority women in Denmark—A qualitative study. (2021) [PDF]

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Badre-Esfahani, Sara, Lone Kjeld Petersen, Camilla Rahr Tatari, Jan Blaakær, Berit Andersen, and Lene Seibæk, Perceptions of Cervical Cancer Prevention among a Group of Ethnic Minority Women in Denmark—A Qualitative Study, PLOS ONE, 16.6 (2021), e0250816 <https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250816>

Background Cervical cancer screening (CCS) and human papillomavirus vaccination (HPVV) are effective measures against cervical cancer (CC). Attendance in HPVV and CCS provides the greatest protection, while combined non-attendance in HPVV and CCS provides little to no protection. It is hence concerning that some large ethnic minority groups show considerably lower HPVV and CCS attendance than other women–especially women from Middle-Eastern and North African (MENA) countries and Pakistan. Little is, however, known about the reasons for this low combined attendance pattern n. Aim To explore perceptions of and barriers to HPVV and CCS, among MENA and Pakistani women in Denmark. Method Focus group interviews were conducted. Data was transcribed verbatim, and analysed using systematic text condensation. Findings Seventeen long-term resident women originating from six major MENA countries and Pakistan were included. Mean age was 36 years. We found that these women, across different age groups and descent, had sparse knowledge and understanding about CC, and their perceived relevance of disease prevention was low. Compared to HPVV, their barriers to CCS were more fixed and often linked to socio-cultural factors such as taboos related to female genitals and sexuality. Moreover, they presented unmet expectations and signs of mistrust in the healthcare system. However, at the end of the interviews, participants became more attentive toward CC prevention, particularly toward HPVV. Conclusion Elements of insufficient knowledge and understanding of CC and its prevention were found among a group of MENA and Pakistani women. Their socio-cultural background further represents a barrier particularly towards CCS. Additionally, negative experiences and unmet expectations lessen their trust in the healthcare system. All of which underlines the need for new tailored CC preventive strategies for this group. Based on our findings we suggest that future studies develop and evaluate interventions aiming to improve HPVV and CCS, including user-involvement.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250816

Kjærulff, Thora Majlund et al. Geographical Inequalities in Acute Myocardial Infarction beyond Neighbourhood-Level and Individual-Level Sociodemographic Characteristics: A Danish 10-Year Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study. (2019) [PDF]

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Kjærulff, Thora Majlund, Kristine Bihrmann, Ingelise Andersen, Gunnar Hilmar Gislason, Mogens Lytken Larsen, and Annette Kjær Ersbøll, Geographical Inequalities in Acute Myocardial Infarction beyond Neighbourhood-Level and Individual-Level Sociodemographic Characteristics: A Danish 10-Year Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study, BMJ Open, 9.2 (2019).

Objective This study examined whether geographical patterns in incident acute myocardial infarction (AMI) were explained by neighbourhood-level and individual-level sociodemographic characteristics.

Design An open cohort study design of AMI-free adults (age ≥30 years) with a residential location in Denmark in 2005–2014 was used based on nationwide administrative population and health register data linked by the unique personal identification number. Poisson regression of AMI incidence rates (IRs) with a geographical random effect component was performed using a Bayesian approach. The analysis included neighbourhood-level variables on income, ethnic composition, population density and population turnover and accounted for individual-level age, sex, calendar year, cohabitation status, income and education. Setting Residents in Denmark (2005–2014).

Participants The study population included 4 128 079 persons (33 907 796 person-years at risk) out of whom 98 265 experienced an incident AMI. Outcome measure Incident AMI registered in the National Patient Register or the Register of Causes of Death. Results Including individual and neighbourhood sociodemographic characteristics in the model decreased the variation in IRs of AMI. However, living in certain areas was associated with up to 40% increased IRs of AMI in the adjusted model and accounting for sociodemographic characteristics only moderately changed the geographical disease patterns.

Conclusions Differences in sociodemographic characteristics of the neighbourhood and individuals explained part, but not all of the geographical inequalities in incident AMI. Prevention strategies should address the confirmed social inequalities in incident AMI, but also target the areas with a heavy disease burden to enable efficient allocation of prevention resources.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-024207

Rytter, Mikkel, At the Borders of the coroNATION: Samfundssind , Muslim Immigrants and Suspicious Solidarity in Denmark. (2023) [PDF]

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Rytter, Mikkel, At the Borders of the coroNATION: Samfundssind , Muslim Immigrants and Suspicious Solidarity in Denmark, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2023, 1–22

Muslim immigrants are vulnerable to COVID-19. They are not only at risk being infected due to extended households and frontline jobs, but they are also vulnerable to moral panics, stigmatization and corona-racism. When Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen in March 2020 closed down society, she appealed to the samfundssind (civic consciousness) of all citizens in Denmark, as a means to fight the invisible enemy of the global pandemic. The idea of samfundssind outlined a moral community between those citizens who did their best to follow the instructions of the authorities and those who deliberately ignored them. This article discusses the establishment of “Taskforce COVID-19”, an ad hoc network of Danish-Pakistanis that in 2020–21 collaborated with municipalities and different health authorities in order to fight the virus. However, despite their aspiration to be accepted and included in the collective of citizens exhibiting samfundssind their efforts were questioned and regarded with suspicion.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2023.2177119

Spaas, Caroline et al. Mental Health of Refugee and Non-Refugee Migrant Young People in European Secondary Education: The Role of Family Separation, Daily Material Stress and Perceived Discrimination in Resettlement. (2022) [PDF]

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Spaas, Caroline, An Verelst, Ines Devlieger, Sanni Aalto, Arnfinn Andersen, Natalie Durbeej, and others, Mental Health of Refugee and Non-Refugee Migrant Young People in European Secondary Education: The Role of Family Separation, Daily Material Stress and Perceived Discrimination in Resettlement, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 51 (2022), 1–23

While scholarly literature indicates that both refugee and non-refugee migrant young people display increased levels of psychosocial vulnerability, studies comparing the mental health of the two groups remain scarce. This study aims to further the existing evidence by examining refugee and non-refugee migrants’ mental health, in relation to their migration history and resettlement conditions. The mental health of 883 refugee and 483 non-refugee migrants (mean age 15.41, range 11-24, 45.9% girls, average length of stay in the host country 3.75 years) in five European countries was studied in their relation to family separation, daily material stress and perceived discrimination in resettlement. All participants reported high levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms. Family separation predicted post-trauma and internalizing behavioral difficulties only in refugees. Daily material stress related to lower levels of overall well-being in all participants, and higher levels of internalizing and externalizing behavioral difficulties in refugees. Perceived discrimination was associated with increased levels of mental health problems for refugees and non-refugee migrants. The relationship between perceived discrimination and post-traumatic stress symptoms in non-refugee migrants, together with the high levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms in this subsample, raises important questions on the nature of trauma exposure in non-refugee migrants, as well as the ways in which experiences of discrimination may interact with other traumatic stressors in predicting mental health.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01515-y

PDF: https://europepmc.org/article/med/34686949

Larsen, Mikkel Haderup, and Merlin Schaeffer. ‘Healthcare Chauvinism during the COVID-19 Pandemic’. (2020) [PDF]

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Larsen, Mikkel Haderup, and Merlin Schaeffer. ‘Healthcare Chauvinism during the COVID-19 Pandemic’. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Routledge, Dec. 2020.

Social science research has produced evidence of welfare chauvinism whereby citizens turn against social policies that disproportionately benefit immigrants and their descendants. Some policymakers advocate welfare chauvinism as a means to incentivize fast labour market integration and assimilation into the mainstream more generally. These contested arguments about integration incentives can hardly be extended to the case of hospital treatment of an acute COVID-19 infection. On that premise we conducted a pre-registered online survey experiment among a representative sample of the Danish population about healthcare chauvinism against recent immigrants and Muslim minorities during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic of spring 2020. Our results show no evidence of blatant racism-driven healthcare chauvinism against acute COVID-19 patients with a Muslim name who were born in Denmark. However, we do find evidence of healthcare chauvinism against patients with a Danish/Nordic name who immigrated to Denmark only a year ago. Moreover, healthcare chauvinism against recently-immigrated COVID-19 patients doubles in strength if they have a Muslim name. Our findings thus suggest that there is general reciprocity-motivated welfare chauvinism against recent immigrants who have not contributed to the welfare state for long and that racism against Muslims strongly catalyses this form of welfare chauvinism.

PDF: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1860742.

Coming of Age in Exile: Health and Socio-Economic Inequalities in Young Refugees in the Nordic Welfare Societies. (2020) [PDF]

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Coming of Age in Exile: Health and Socio-Economic Inequalities in Young Refugees in the Nordic Welfare Societies. NordForsk, 2020,

Coming of Age in Exile (CAGE) has been a multidisciplinary research project, funded by the Nordic Research Council (NordForsk) during 2015-2020, for more information see https://cage.ku.dk/. CAGE has been led by the Danish Research Centre for Migration, Ethnicity and Health (MESU) at the Department of Public Health at the University of Copenhagen and carried out in collaboration with researchers at the Migration Institute of Finland, Turku; the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS), Oslo; the University of South-Eastern Norway, University of Bergen, University of Gothenburg, and the Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS), Stockholm University/Karolinska Institutet. 

During the last fifty years, the number of people moving to the Nordic countries has increased. From the 1970s onwards, a large part of non-Nordic immigration has consisted of refugees and their families. Children below 18 years of age comprise a sizable proportion of refugee immigrants, i.e. 25-35% of the refugees in the Nordic countries, and about twice as many when children born in exile are also included. In welfare typologies, the Nordic countries are often considered as similar in terms of their welfare state policies, but there are also important differences between countries in terms of immigration policy and economic context. The Migration Integration Policy Index (MIPEX), a comparative policy analysis tool used by the European Union, has shown that during the period in which the CAGE study was conducted, Denmark ranked far behind the other Nordic countries, with more restrictive integration policies related to financial support, family reunification, and possibilities for naturalisation. Key economic factors also differ considerably between countries, with Sweden and Finland having had higher rates of youth unemployment during recent decades. The Nordic countries, with their excellent national registers, provide a unique arena for comparative studies of refugee children and youth in order to obtain an understanding of contextual factors in the reception countries for the integration of young refugees. 

The aim of the CAGE project has been to investigate inequalities in education, labour market participation, and health during the formative years in young refugees, and how they relate to national policies and other contextual factors. CAGE has used a mixed methods strategy built around a core of cross-country comparative quantitative register studies in national cohorts of refugees who were granted residency as children (0-17 years) during 1986-2005 in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, with follow-up until 2015. These quantitative register studies have been complimented with policy analyses and qualitative studies of key mechanisms involved in the development of these inequalities.

PDF: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ketil_Eide/publication/348357687_CAGE_Final_Report_2015-2020/links/5ffa113692851c13feffbbe2/CAGE-Final-Report-2015-2020.pdf.

Karrebæk, Martha Sif. ‘“What’s in Your Lunch Box Today?”: Health, Respectability, and Ethnicity in the Primary Classroom’. (2012)

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Karrebæk, Martha Sif. ‘“What’s in Your Lunch Box Today?”: Health, Respectability, and Ethnicity in the Primary Classroom’. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, vol. 22, no. 1, 2012, pp. 1–22.

Much socialization of children into healthy food practices takes place in the educational system. However, teachers’ understandings of healthy food may differ from those of students and parents. Furthermore, health is connected to respectability. Thus, food socialization concerns more than nutritional values. This study examines lunchtime interactions between minority students and majority teachers in a Danish classroom. I show that certain traditional food items (rye bread) are treated as superior to certain others that minority children regularly bring. Children are accountable for lunch boxes, and cultural and personal preferences are disregarded if at odds with dominant understandings of healthy food. [

doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1395.2012.01129.x.

https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1548-1395.2012.01129.x.

Karrebæk, Martha Sif. ‘Healthy Beverages?: The Interactional Use of Milk, Juice and Water in an Ethnically Diverse Kindergarten Class in Denmark’. (2014)

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Karrebæk, Martha Sif. ‘Healthy Beverages?: The Interactional Use of Milk, Juice and Water in an Ethnically Diverse Kindergarten Class in Denmark’. Language and Food, Ed. Polly E. Szatrowski, John Benjamins, 2014, 279–300.

This paper investigates the socialization into healthy food practices in a Danish multi-ethnic kindergarten classroom within the frameworks of Linguistic Ethnography (Creese, 2008; Rampton, Maybin & Tusting, 2007) and Language Socialization (Ochs, 1988; Schieffelin, 1990). I present micro-analyses of three situations where the health value of milk, water, and juice is topicalized. Health is a moral concept which is culturally embedded but linguistically constructed and negotiated. I discuss how learning outcomes in health educational activities depend on individuals’ understandings prior to interactions and on the process of co-ordinating understandings. Also, in children’s conversations nutritional value becomes an interactional resource. The paper contributes to prior research with a micro-analytic perspective on the role of health education in wider processes of social exclusion and intercultural (mis)understandings.

https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/books/9789027270887-pbns.238.12kar

Sørensen, Bo Wagner. ‘Når kulturen går i kroppen: „Halve grønlændere” som begreb og fænomen’. (1997) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Sørensen, Bo Wagner. ‘Når kulturen går i kroppen: „Halve grønlændere” som begreb og fænomen’. Tidsskriftet Antropologi, no. 35–36, 35–36, Sept. 1997.

Bo Wagner Sørensen: When Culture Gets Embodied: The Notion and Phenomenon of Greenlandic “Halfies’’ The article tries to make sense of the notion of Greenlandic “halfies” by showing how the notion is part of a cultural discourse which is expressed in terms of “between two cultures”. This discourse points both to people being split between cultures and to the cultures having materialized themselves in individual bodies. In light of recent critique of the concept of culture in anthropology it is reasonable to question the essentialism underlying the expression “between two cultures”, and also to imagine that individuals who invoke it are suffering from “false consciousness”. However, it seems that the discourse causes real pain in actual bodies, and therefore it needs to be taken seriously. In the article, the discourse is put in a larger historical, social and political perspective, showing how the idea has been established that Greenlandic and Danish culture and identity are rather incompatible entities. The Greenlandic struggle for political independence has been fought to a large degree in the field of culture, which implies that people in general are informed by dichotomy thinking. Individuals who do not match up with the acknowledged criteria for Greenlandic culture and identity are inclined to be caught between cultures and loyalities, the result being that the political cultural war is reproduced and reflected in individual bodies. Due to the widespread identityhealth model according to which the ideal identity is a clear-cut and fixed ethnic identity, these individuals are often believed to experience identity crises. The article suggests that the “problem” may not be one of incompatible cultural essences, though it is widely thought so, but rather that culture and identity get politicized.

PDF: https://tidsskrift.dk/tidsskriftetantropologi/article/view/115316.

Jensen, Niklas Thode. ‘Safeguarding Slaves: Smallpox, Vaccination, and Governmental Health Policies among the Enslaved Population in the Danish West Indies, 1803-1848’. (2009)

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Jensen, Niklas Thode. ‘Safeguarding Slaves: Smallpox, Vaccination, and Governmental Health Policies among the Enslaved Population in the Danish West Indies, 1803-1848’. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, vol. 83, no. 1, 2009, pp. 95–124.

During the first half of the nineteenth century, a unique system of vaccination against smallpox was developed in the island of St. Croix in the Danish West Indies. The primary intention was to protect the population of enslaved workers, which was of fundamental importance to the economy of the colony. However, because the Danish abolition of the slave trade in 1803 had stopped the imports of new enslaved workers from Africa, the population was also decreasing. The vaccination system’s success was due to a high degree of governmental control of the enslaved population that was virtually unseen anywhere else in the Caribbean.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19329843/

Johnsen, Helle, Nazila Ghavami Kivi, Cecilie H. Morrison, Mette Juhl, Ulla Christensen, and Sarah F. Villadsen. ‘Addressing Ethnic Disparity in Antenatal Care: A Qualitative Evaluation of Midwives’ (2020) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Johnsen, Helle, Nazila Ghavami Kivi, Cecilie H. Morrison, Mette Juhl, Ulla Christensen, and Sarah F. Villadsen. ‘Addressing Ethnic Disparity in Antenatal Care: A Qualitative Evaluation of Midwives’ Experiences with the MAMAACT Intervention’. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, vol. 20, no. 1, Feb. 2020, p. 118.

In Denmark, 13% of all children are born by non-Western immigrant women. The public antenatal care has not adapted to this increased diversity of women. Compared to women coming from Western countries, non-Western immigrant women have an increased prevalence of severe maternal morbidity and higher risks of maternal death, stillbirth and infant death. Suboptimal care is a contributing factor to these ethnic disparities, and thus the provision of appropriate antenatal care services is pivotal to reducing these disparities and challenges to public health. Yet, little is known about the targeted interventions which have been developed to reduce these inequities in reproductive health. The MAMAACT intervention, which included a training course for midwives, a leaflet and a mobile application, as well as additional visit time, was developed and tested at a maternity ward to increase responses to pregnancy warning signs among midwives and non-Western immigrant women. Aim: To explore the feasibility and acceptability of the MAMAACT intervention among midwives and identify factors affecting midwives’ delivery of the intervention.

doi:10.1186/s12884-020-2807-4.

PDF: https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12884-020-2807-4.pdf

Kim-Larsen, Mette A. E. ‘Hvid mælk – om racialisering af mælk og laktoseintolerans i forbindelse med transnational adoption’. (2016) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Kim-Larsen, Mette A. E. ‘Hvid mælk – om racialisering af mælk og laktoseintolerans i forbindelse med transnational adoption’. Kvinder, Køn & Forskning, no. 4, 4, 2016.

In Denmark, ‘lactose intolerance’ refers to a medical diagnosis and a condition where the person is unable to digest lactose, a sugar found in milk and dairy products. However, 75% of the world’s population is considered lactose intolerant which raises the question: under which circumstances is lactose intolerance considered a disease in Denmark? In order to answer this question, this article examines different subjectifying processes in relation to health, race,ethnicity, and the consumption of food, and the relation of all of these factors to milk. The analysis focuses on a publication by the Danish adoption organization Adoption og Samfund (Adoption and Society), a special issue on food. Influenced by the work of Butler (1990, 2004), Omi & Winant (1986) and Myong (2009), I find that milk comes to determine whiteness and Danishness in the publication. Consequently, lactose tolerance functions as a figure for the normalizedbody belonging to the white adopter, who is framed by firstness and situated in the Global North. At the same time, lactose intolerance functions as a figure for the deviant, weak, medicalized body belonging to the adoptee of colour who is framed by otherness and situated in the Global South. Hence, drinking milk (or not) positions the subject either as part of a privileged majority or an underprivileged minority.

doi:10.7146/kkf.v25i4.104396.

PDF: https://tidsskrift.dk/KKF/article/view/104396.

Lenneis, Verena, and Sine Agergaard. ‘Tilhørsforhold og danskhed. Debatten om kønsopdelt svømning’. (2018) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Lenneis, Verena, and Sine Agergaard. ‘Tilhørsforhold og danskhed. Debatten om kønsopdelt svømning’. Dansk Sociologi, vol. 29, no. 3, 3, 2018, pp. 45–63. rauli.cbs.dk,

I 2016 og 2017 skabte kvindesvømning – et tilbud, der tiltrækker mest, men ikke udelukkende etniske minoritetskvinder – intens debat i hele Danmark. Denne artikel fokuserer på den politiske debat i Aarhus Byråd, der førte til en beslutning om, at der i kommunens svømmehaller ikke må være kønsopdelt svømning i den offentlige åbningstid. Formålet med artiklen er at undersøge, hvordan en fritidsaktivitet som kvindesvømning blev til et problem i 2016, som krævede en langvarig debat og et politisk indgreb. Med udgangspunkt i Nira Yuval-Davis’ begreber om politisering af tilhørsforhold viser vores analyse, hvordan forestillinger om danskhed og dertilhørende danske værdier gøres til centrale argumenter i den politiske debat, som fører til politisk regulering af en velbesøgt sundhedsfremmende fritidsaktivitet. Debatten om kønsopdelt svømning understreger, at værdier såsom individuel valgfrihed eller religionsfrihed, som indtil for nyligt prægede den politiske praksis i nordiske velfærdsregimer, afløses af danskhed som den altoverskyggende værdiramme.   

The debate about gender-segregated swimming: belonging and Danishness  In 2016 and 2017, women-only swimming – an initiative that attracts mostly, but not exclusively minority ethnic women – caused considerable discussion across Denmark. This article focuses on the year-long political debate in the city council of Aarhus which subsequently led to a ban on women-only swimming activities during public opening hours in the municipality’s indoor swimming pools. The aim of this article was to examine why a leisure time activity such as women-only swimming became a ‘problem’ in 2016, and how it became subjected to political regulation. Drawing on Nira Yuval-Davis’ politics of belonging, our analysis shows how imaginations of ‘Danishness’ and, in particular, Danish values became central arguments in the political debate that led to the regulation of a well-attended and health-promoting leisure activity. The debate on gender-segregated swimming emphasizes that values such as freedom of choice or freedom of religion, which until recently have dominated the political practice in Nordic welfare regimes, are replaced by ‘Danishness’ as the paramount political concern.  Keywords: gender, ethnicity, religion, belonging, integration.

doi:10.22439/dansoc.v29i3.5804.

PDF: https://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/dansksociologi/article/view/5804.

Nielsen, Jorgen, editor. Islam in Denmark: The Challenge of Diversity. (2011)

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Nielsen, Jørgen, editor. Islam in Denmark: The Challenge of Diversity. Lanham, Md: Lexington Books, 2011.

Little has been published in English about Islam in Denmark although interest grew after the cartoons crisis of 2005-6. Danish research on the subject is extensive, and this volume aims to present some of the most recent to an international audience. While many of the circumstances which apply across western Europe — the history of immigration and refugees, settlement, the growth of Muslim organizations and international links, challenges of social and cultural encounter, and more recently Islam as a security issue — also apply in Denmark, there are also differences. A small, compact country with no recent imperial history, Denmark’s unified institutional, religious and social culture can make it difficult for newcomers to integrate. The fourteen chapters in this book cover the topic in three parts. The first part deals with the history and statistics of immigration and settlement, and the religious institutional responses, Christian and Muslim. Part two looks at specific issues and the interaction with the developing national debate about identity and minority. Finally part three presents the experience of four active participants in the processes of integration: youth work and hospital chaplaincy, interreligious dialogue, and the views of an imam.

Chapter 1: Setting the Scene (Jørgen S. Nielsen)
Part One: National Perspectives
Chapter 2: Denmark, Islam and Muslims – Socio-Economic Dynamics and the Art of Becoming (Jørgen Bæk Simonsen)
Chapter 3: Muslims in Denmark – a Critical Evaluation of Estimation (Brian Arly Jacobsen)
Chapter 4: Religion and State: Recognition of Islam and Related Legislation (Lisbet Christoffersen)
Chapter 5: Mosques and Organizations (Lene Kühle)
Part Two: Particular Perspectives
Chapter 6: Nørrebro and ”Muslimness”: A Neighborhood Caught Between National Mythscapes and Local Engagement (Garbi Schmidt)
Chapter 7: How Did ‘the Muslim Pupil’ Become Muslim? Danish State Schooling and ‘the Migrant Pupils’ since the 1970s (Mette Buchardt)
Chapter 8: Gender as a Tool in Danish Debates about Muslims (Rikke Andreassen)
Chapter 9: Conversion to Islam in Denmark (Tina Jensen and Kate Østergaard)
Chapter 10: Muslims as a Danish Security Issue (Mona Kanwal Sheikh and Manni Crone)
Part Three: Perspectives on the Ground
Chapter 11: ‘To be Something’ – the Role of Religion in the Formation of Protest Identity among Ethnic Minority Youth (Lissi Rasmussen)
Chapter 12: Counseling in the Health Service (Naveed Baig)
Chapter 13: Interreligious Relations (Safet Bektovic)
Chapter 14: Towards a European Understanding of Islam (Abdul Wahid Pedersen)

https://rowman.com/isbn/0739170139

Suárez-Krabbe, Julia, Annika Lindberg, and José Arce-Bayona. Stop Killing Us Slowly: A Research Report on the Motivation Enhancement Measures and the Criminalisation of Rejected Asylum Seekers in Denmark. (2018) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Suárez-Krabbe, Julia, Annika Lindberg, and José Arce-Bayona. Stop Killing Us Slowly: A Research Report on the Motivation Enhancement Measures and the Criminalisation of Rejected Asylum Seekers in Denmark. The Freedom of Movements Research Collective, 2018,

Executive summary:

According to the Danish Minister of Immigration and Integration, the Danish deportation centres Sjælsmark and Kærshovedgård are set up to ‘make life intolerable’3 for those rejected asylum-seekers who cannot immediately be detained or deported, thereby pressuring them into leaving Denmark ‘voluntarily’. As part of the motivation enhancement measures introduced into the Danish Aliens Act in 1997 the deportation centres confine asylum seekers in geographically isolated ‘open’ institutions with low living standards and minimum welfare provisions. However, these measures have not fulfilled their official function. Instead of making more people return ‘voluntarily’, they have pushed rejected asylum seekers into illegality, while others remain stuck and de facto confined in deportation centres for a potentially indefinite time period. This report gives an overview of the setup of the deportation centres and analyses how the discrepancy be-tween the intended and real effects may be interpreted. It asks: what are the functions of deporta-tion centres based on their real, rather than politically declared effects? Addressing this question, the report finds the following:

• The deportation centres in particular and the motivation enhancement measures in general, do not fulfil their declared function of increasing ‘voluntary’ returns, nor do they address the issue of migrants who are legally stranded for lengthy periods of time with very circumscribed rights.

• The legal frameworks regulating detention or prisons in Denmark (i.e. time limits, ac-cess to legal advice, rights guarantees) do not apply to deportation centres. Deporta-tion centres can therefore be compared to indefinite detention

.• The deportation centres result in the dras-tic deterioration of the mental and physical health of the men, women, and children ac-commodated there

• The political framework, the juridical setup and the daily rules and practices in depor-tation centres contribute to the criminalisa-tion of migrants and refugees

.• By running these practices in a legal grey zone, the Danish government circumvents – and overtly breaches – human rights reg-ulations at the same time locking residents in a situation with very limited possibilities to contest these conditions and claim their human rights.

• While failing to achieve their own stated goals, the motivation enhancement meas-ures and the deportation centres do achieve making peoples’ lives intolerable: they break people’s spirits and minds and force them to live a life in illegality, outside of the justice- and rights system.~

PDF: http://refugees.dk/media/1757/stop-killing-us_uk.pdf.