Johansen, Mette Louise. In the Borderland – Palestinian Parents Navigating Danish Welfare State Interventions. (2013)

Johansen, Mette Louise. In the Borderland – Palestinian Parents Navigating Danish Welfare State Interventions. Dissertation. Aarhus Universitet, 2013,

This PhD thesis offers an account on processes of marginalization at the interface between the Danish welfare state and migrant families of Palestinian descent living in the largest so-called migrant ghetto in Denmark, Gellerupparken. Empirically, the thesis asks how marginalized Palestinian refugee parents with troubled children perceive and cope with welfare state interventions in order to keep their family together. The thesis focuses on Palestinian refugee parents who are marginalized in the Danish state and society as well as in the Palestinian community and ‘ghetto’ population in Gellerupparken, and who may in this sense may be defined as ‘extra-marginalized’. A basic point of departure for the thesis is that the study of marginalized citizens in Denmark can shed light on general contemporary state-society relationships. A key analytical optic in interpreting marginalization rests on Veena Das and Deborah Poole’s (2004) notion of state-margins as presenting the wild and uncivilized counterpart and necessary opposition to the state. According to Das and Poole the state and the margin is continuously redefined in opposition to each other through the invocation of images of the proper citizen and society (Das and Poole 2004: 8). The thesis explores the constitutive mechanisms characterizing the nature of the relationship between the Danish welfare state and the marginalized Palestinian parents in Gellerupparken, and revolves around issues on parenting, intimate everyday lives, and proximate state control. The thesis is based on 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork among Palestinian families whose children are approached as troubles and a threat by the Danish authorities. The research was conducted in Gellerupparken in 2009 and 2010. The neighborhood is characterized by a heightened commerce and interaction between different ethnic groups, but it is also known as a public outrage on the basis of increasing crime-rates, violence, social problems, and socio-economically disadvantaged families living off the Danish labor market and in isolation from the larger civil society. Since 2005, the housing project has officially been a ‘ghetto’, fulfilling certain criteria and calling for thorough state intervention and marked by the presence of a vast number of welfare institutions, and policing and surveillance.  The thesis proposes three central arguments: First, I argue that the relationship between the state and the margin is fundamentally unstable. This is so because both the state and the margin appear as internally diverse and unstable with no clear social, cultural, or internal practice-based cohesion, and because the boundaries that demarcate their divide may be just as porous as they may be impermeable. The highly unstable relationship between state and margin is mirrored in the Palestinian parents’ ambiguous practices of searching for the state when it is not there to meet their needs, and simultaneously trying to escape the state when it is perceived to be ‘intruding’ into the family in ways that are not welcome.  Secondly, I argue that marginalization is enacted between state, family, and community, and we need to include the complexity of concerns at stake in this triangular interrelationship in order to understand how marginality is locally produced. Empirically, the thesis shows that the parents perceive their parental position as caught between the proverbial rock and the hard place – between the practices and expectations of the state, the community, and their own children. This position is imbued with insecurity, despair, and a continuous quest for possible ways to keep the family together.  Thirdly, I argue that ways of coping with the interrelationships between state, community, and family is constitutive of the parents’ subjectivity. The thesis shows that borderland formations between these different agencies form the basis for the parents’ imperative to keep the family together. This struggle implies keeping the closest family from being split up and preventing the physical distance, absence, or loss of a family member from the home in the face of ‘threats’ of imprisonment, removal of children, punitive expulsion of their sons from school, or eviction of the families from their homes. It also implies avoiding break-ups between family members, including between parents and children. Furthermore, to the parents keeping the family together entails keeping relatives from breaking down. In this context, the families are under pressure from impulses that they perceive to be threatening the family’s self-preservation, such as severe illness, depression and despair.

https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/projects/phd-project-in-the-borderland–palestinian-parents-navigating-danish-welfare-state-interventions(1b244739-d48d-442b-99be-3ef35460ed33).html. https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/projects/phd-project-in-the-borderland–palestinian-parents-navigating-danish-welfare-state-interventions(1b244739-d48d-442b-99be-3ef35460ed33).html.

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

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.

Breidahl, Karen Nielsen, Troels Fage Hedegaard, Kristian Kongshøj, and Christian Albrekt Larsen. Migrants’ Attitudes and the Welfare State: The Danish Melting Pot. (2021)

Breidahl, Karen Nielsen, Troels Fage Hedegaard, Kristian Kongshøj, and Christian Albrekt Larsen. Migrants’ Attitudes and the Welfare State: The Danish Melting Pot. Northampton: Edward Elgar Pub, 2021,

Analysing two major surveys of 14 different migrant groups connected to Danish register data, this insightful book explores what migrants think of the welfare state. It investigates the question of whether migrants assimilate to the ideas of extensive state intervention in markets and families or if they retain the attitudes and values that are prevalent in their countries of origin.The authors examine what various migrant groups from countries including Poland, Romania, Spain, the UK, China, Japan, Turkey, Russia, the US, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iraq and the former-Yugoslavia living in Denmark think about the trustworthiness of state institutions, state responsibility, economic redistribution, female employment and childcare. Chapters also cover the key issues of national identification, social trust and welfare nationalism. Concluding that migrants from diverse backgrounds assimilate well into the welfare attitudes, norms and values of the Danish people in several areas, the book points to the potential assimilative impact of the welfare state. Incorporating new theoretical discussions, this book will be critical reading for academics and students studying migration and welfare states. It will also be a useful resource for comparative migration researchers interested in the impact of the host country context on migrants’ assimilation patterns.

https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/migrants-attitudes-and-the-welfare-state-9781800376335.html.

Martha S. Karrebæk. ‘Pigs and Pork in Denmark: Meaning Change, Morality and Traditional Foods.’ (2017) [PDF]

Martha S. Karrebæk.. Pigs and Pork in Denmark: Meaning Change, Morality and Traditional Foods. WP230, Literacies, Working Papers in Urban Language. 2017.

This paper engages with meanings of pork and pigs, as they are revealed in Denmark today. The main objective is to discuss the relation between use and understandings as revealed in interaction in different settings, on the one hand, and how such situational uses relate to nation-wide mass-mediated discourses, on the other. The porcine area lends itself to such an analysis, as pork carries a range of important indexicalities in contemporary Denmark. It signifies tradition, industrialization, and an anti-immigration stance. Interactional data come from three field-studies, from a school, a fine-dining restaurant and a fast food restaurant. The media data come from three recent debates on Denmark, Danish values, and immigrants versus Danes.

https://nors.ku.dk/english/staff/?pure=en%2Fpublications%2Fpigs-and-pork-in-denmark-meaning-change-ideology-and-traditional-foods(898a1c38-42a0-4476-9a6c-c840b60ab94b).html.

PDF: https://www.academia.edu/35100320/WP230_Karreb%C3%A6k_2017_Pigs_and_pork_in_Denmark_Meaning_change_morality_and_traditional_foods.

Karrebæk, Martha Sif, Københavns Universitet, and Humanistiske Fakultet. At blive et børnehavebarn: en minoritetsdrengs sprog, interaktion og deltagelse i børnefællesskabet. (2011) [PDF]

Karrebæk, Martha Sif, Københavns Universitet, and Humanistiske Fakultet. At blive et børnehavebarn: en minoritetsdrengs sprog, interaktion og deltagelse i børnefællesskabet. PhD dissertation. Københavns Universitet, Humanistisk Fakultet, 2011.

PDF: https://andetsprogsforskning.ku.dk/forskning/koebenhavnerstudier_i_tosprogethed_/manuskripter/Bind_62_-_Martha_Sif_Karreb_k_-_At_blive_et_b_rnehavebarn.pdf

Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær. ‘Politics Feeds Back: The Minority/Majority Turnout Gap and Citizenship in Anti-Immigrant Times’. (2020)

Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær. ‘Politics Feeds Back: The Minority/Majority Turnout Gap and Citizenship in Anti-Immigrant Times’. Perspectives on Politics, Cambridge University Press, 2020, pp. 1–16.

Voting is a democratic virtue and an important mechanism for citizens to let their voices be heard. However, citizens do not participate in politics at equal levels, with consequences for their political power. While turnout gaps between different socioeconomic groups are well researched, the biggest gap in many Western European countries today has been overlooked: that between the children of immigrants (minority youths) and the majority population. I argue that existing theories fall short in addressing this gap because they do not attend to the distinctly political forces that shape citizens’ relationships to politics. Building on the policy-feedback literature, and analyzing seventy-one in-depth interviews with minority and majority youths in Denmark, I show that because these groups are targeted very differently in policy and political discourse, they have substantially different conceptions of politics and their status as citizens. Many minority youths react to anti-immigrant political messages by dissociating from politics, but I warn against interpreting their quiescence as political apathy. Instead, dissociating from politics can be a strategy to reclaim power over their self-understanding and can be experienced as empowering. These findings challenge classic conceptualizations of political engagement and open discussion about how to understand political behavior in increasingly diverse societies.

doi:10.1017/S1537592720002431.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/abs/politics-feeds-back-the-minoritymajority-turnout-gap-and-citizenship-in-antiimmigrant-times/A83697CB81927CA41CFA9B86D92B3723.

Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær. ‘”Hvor dansk skal man være for at være dansk?” Hvordan unge efterkommere af indvandrere fra Mellemøsten oplever mulighederne for at høre til i Danmark’. (2017) [PDF]

Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær. ‘”Hvor dansk skal man være for at være dansk?” Hvordan unge efterkommere af indvandrere fra Mellemøsten oplever mulighederne for at høre til i Danmark’. Politica, no. 3, 2017, pp. 312–329.

Forskningen i integration af indvandrere og deres børn interesserer sig typisk for funktionelle og objektive mål, mens der mere sjældent sættes fokus på den identifikationsmæssige integration. På baggrund af dybdegående interviews undersøger jeg, hvordan unge efterkommere af indvandrere fra Mellemøsten opfatter grænsen til det danske, og hvilke konsekvenser dette har for deres følelse af nationalt tilhør. Analysen viser, at der er udbredt konsensus blandt interviewpersonerne om, hvilke markører der ekskluderer en fra det danske. Variationen i graden af nationalt tilhør blandt interviewpersonerne (fra sikker identifikation til dis-identifikation) forklares af, hvordan de opfatter deres egen placering i forhold til grænsen.

PDF: https://politica.dk/fileadmin/politica/Dokumenter/politica_49_3/kristina.pdf

Brodmann, Stefanie, and Javier G. Polavieja. ‘Immigrants in Denmark: Access to Employment, Class Attainment and Earnings in a High-Skilled Economy’. (2011) [PDF]

Brodmann, Stefanie, and Javier G. Polavieja. ‘Immigrants in Denmark: Access to Employment, Class Attainment and Earnings in a High-Skilled Economy’. International Migration, vol. 49, no. 1, 2011, pp. 58–90.

This study examines employment access, class attainment, and earnings among native-born and first-generation immigrants in Denmark using Danish administrative data from 2002. Results suggest large gaps in employment access between native-born Danes and immigrants, as well as among immigrant groups by country of origin and time of arrival. Non-Western immigrants and those arriving after 1984 are at a particular disadvantage compared to other immigrants, a finding not explained by education differences. Immigrants are more likely to be employed in unskilled manual jobs and less likely to be employed in professional and intermediate-level positions than native-born Danes, although the likelihood of obtaining higher-level positions increases as immigrants’ time in Denmark lengthens. Class attainment and accumulated work experience explain a significant portion of native-immigrant gaps in earnings, but work experience reduces native-immigrant gaps in class attainment for lower-level positions only. The Danish “flexicurity” model and its implications for immigrants living in Denmark are discussed.

doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.2010.00608.x.

PDF: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-2435.2010.00608.x.

Jensen, Sune Qvotrup. ‘Othering, Identity Formation and Agency’ (2011) [PDF]

Jensen, Sune Qvotrup. ‘Othering, Identity Formation and Agency’. Qualitative Studies, vol. 2, no. 2, Dec. 2011, pp. 63–78.

The article examines the potentials of the concept of othering to describe identity formation among ethnic minorities. First, it outlines the history of the concept, its contemporary use, as well as some criticisms. Then it is argued that young ethnic minority men in Denmark are subject to intersectional othering, which contains elements of exoticist fascination of the other. On the basis of ethnographic material, it is analysed how young marginalized ethnic minority men react to othering. Two types of reactions are illustrated: 1) capitalization on being positioned as the other, and 2) refusing to occupy the position of the other by disidentification and claims to normality. Finally, it is argued that the concept of othering is well suited for understanding the power structures as well as the historic symbolic meanings conditioning such identity formation, but problematic in terms of agency.

PDF: https://tidsskrift.dk/qual/article/view/5510

Jensen, Kristian Kriegbaum. ‘What Can and Cannot Be Willed: How Politicians Talk about National Identity and Immigrants: What Can and Cannot Be Willed’. (2014) [PDF]

Jensen, Kristian Kriegbaum. ‘What Can and Cannot Be Willed: How Politicians Talk about National Identity and Immigrants: What Can and Cannot Be Willed’. Nations and Nationalism, vol. 20, no. 3, July 2014, pp. 563–583.

The ethnic‐civic framework remains widely used in nationalism research. However, in the context of European immigrant integration politics, where almost all ‘nation talk’ is occurring in civic and liberal registers, the framework has a hard time identifying how conceptions of national identity brought forth in political debate differ in their exclusionary potential. This leads some to the conclusion that national identity is losing explanatory power. Building on the insights of Oliver Zimmer, I argue that we may find a different picture if we treat cultural content and logic of boundary construction – two parameters conflated in the ethnic‐civic framework – as two distinct analytical levels. The framework I propose focuses on an individual and collective dimension of logic of boundary construction that together constitute the inclusionary/exclusionary core of national identity. The framework is tested on the political debate on immigrant integration in Denmark and Norway in selected years. Indeed, the framework enables us to move beyond the widespread idea that Danish politicians subscribe to an ethnic conception of the nation, while Norwegian political thought is somewhere in between an ethnic and civic conception. The true difference is that Danish politicians, unlike their Norwegian counterparts, do not acknowledge the collective self‐understanding as an object of political action.

doi:10.1111/nana.12069.

PDF: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264773027_What_can_and_cannot_be_willed_How_politicians_talk_about_national_identity_and_immigrants.

Koefoed, Lasse Martin, and Kirsten Simonsen. ‘“I Feel Danish but…”: A Case Study on National Identity Formation and Ambivalence’. (2013) [PDF]

Koefoed, Lasse Martin, and Kirsten Simonsen. ‘“I Feel Danish but…”: A Case Study on National Identity Formation and Ambivalence’. Geographica Helvetica, vol. 68, no. 3, Copernicus GmbH, Nov. 2013, pp. 213–222.

Non-western minorities in Europe, one can argue, are experiencing particularly vulnerable processes of subjectification and identification. They are often caught between double processes of inclusion/exclusion, integration/segregation or identification/estrangement. This article explores some of the complex and ambiguous processes of identification within this group, in connection with development of the spatial identity of Danishness. It starts with a short theoretical pinning down of the figure of “the stranger” working as a basis for the empirical analysis. Organised in three sections, each interpreting a specific narrative of identification, the analysis subsequently explores processes and problems of identity formation within a minority group increasingly designated as “strangers” within the Danish nation state. The article concludes on the different ways in which uncertainty and ambivalence infiltrate the identity formation.

https://gh.copernicus.org/articles/68/213/2013/

PDF: https://rucforsk.ruc.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/53947197/I_feel_danish.pdf.

Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær. ‘What It Means to (Not) Belong: A Case Study of How Boundary Perceptions Affect Second-Generation Immigrants’ Attachments to the Nation’. (2018)

Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær. ‘What It Means to (Not) Belong: A Case Study of How Boundary Perceptions Affect Second-Generation Immigrants’ Attachments to the Nation’. Sociological Forum, vol. 33, no. 1, 2018, pp. 118–138.

Across Europe, the symbolic boundaries drawn against Muslim/Middle Eastern immigrants and their children are increasingly rigid and exclusive. While there is broad agreement in the literature that external symbolic boundaries matter for individuals’ self-identifications, the process by which boundaries translate into experiences of (not) belonging is theoretically underdeveloped and empirically understudied. Through inductive analysis of in-depth interviews with second-generation immigrants of Middle Eastern descent in Denmark, this study contributes to the literature by examining boundary perceptions as the mediating link between externally drawn boundaries and subjectively felt belonging. The analysis demonstrates widespread agreement in interviewees’ perception of a bright boundary. At the same time, however, there is variation in the degree of belonging, which is explained by the interviewees’ perceptions of their own position in relation to the boundary. A central contribution of the study is a suggested reconceptualization of the concept of belonging to improve our understanding of the complexity of how second-generation immigrants simultaneously feel attachment to and distance from the nation.

doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12402.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/socf.12402

Vinther-Jensen, Kirsten, Rikke Primdahl, Danmark, and Sundhedsstyrelsen. Etniske minoriteter i det danske sundhedsvæsen: en antologi. (2010) [PDF]

Vinther-Jensen, Kirsten, Rikke Primdahl, Danmark, and Sundhedsstyrelsen. Etniske minoriteter i det danske sundhedsvæsen: en antologi. Sundhedsstyrelsen, 2010.

Forord:

Selvom etniske minoriteter talmæssigt kun udgør en mindre del af det samlede an-tal patienter i det danske sundhedsvæsen, oplever ansatte inden for sundhedsvæse-net ofte etniske minoriteter som en særlig udfordrende patientgruppe. Dette skyl-des en bred vifte af faktorer såsom kulturbestemte sygdomsmønstre, forskellige sygdomsopfattelser samt de sproglige og kulturelle barrierer, der opstår i mødet mellem sundhedspersonalet og patienten med anden etnisk baggrund.

Mødet mellem personale og patienter med anden etnisk baggrund kan være præget af forestillinger og usikkerhed fra begge parter, som blandt andet bunder i forskel-lige forventninger til mødet mellem patienten og sundhedsvæsenet. For patienten kan det føre til en uhensigtsmæssig brug af sundhedsvæsenet og –ydelser samt håndtering af egen sygdom. For personalet kan det skabe frustrationer og magtes-løshed.

Sundhedsloven fastsætter, at alle skal sikres let og lige adgang til sundhedsvæse-net. For at leve op til dette i forhold til etniske minoriteter er det vigtigt at identifi-cere de særlige udfordringer, der er forbundet med denne gruppe patienters møde med sundhedsvæsenet og finde relevante løsningsmodeller for indsatsen i fremti-den.

Denne publikation tager afsæt i fem regionale seminarer, som Sundhedsstyrelsen holdt i 2009 i samarbejde med de fem regioner med henblik på at styrke kommu-ners og regioners indsats rettet mod etniske minoriteter. Publikationen er udarbej-det som en antologi med artikler fra nogle af de oplægsholdere, der deltog ved seminarerne samt enkelte øvrige forskere.

Publikationen præsenterer forskellige oplevelser og erfaringer med etniske minori-teter i sundhedsvæsenet ud fra både personalets og patientens perspektiv. Der sæt-tes fokus på udfordringerne i forbindelse med kulturmødet og på, hvor arbejdet med etniske minoriteters sundhed befinder sig og bevæger sig hen. Alle artiklerne er udtryk for forfatternes egne erfaringer og vurderinger.

Målgruppen for antologien er alle, der beskæftiger sig med etniske minoriteter en-ten som praktikere, forskere, planlæggere eller beslutningstagere, og som vil opda-tere deres viden eller lade sig inspirere af udvalgte aktiviteter – primært med ud-gangspunkt i det regionale sundhedsvæsen.

Vi håber, at publikationen vil bidrage til den nødvendige debat om etniske minori-teters møde med sundhedsvæsenet og udvikling inden for området.

PDF: https://www.sst.dk/~/media/9FFE65223C8A47328A51CD7DBAFA7466.ashx

Jørholt, Eva. ‘En Fremmed Kommer Til Byen: MGP Missionens Bud På Inter-Etnisk Nytænkning i Dansk Film’. (2013) [PDF]

Jørholt, Eva. ‘En Fremmed Kommer Til Byen: MGP Missionens Bud På Inter-Etnisk Nytænkning i Dansk Film’. Kosmorama, no. 251, 2013,

Det trak store overskrifter og pustede nyt liv i racismedebatten, da det kom frem, at Det Danske Filminstitut i oktober 2011 havde givet afslag på en ansøgning om produktionsstøtte til børnefilmen MGP Missionen. Filmen udmærker sig ved at være den første decideret kommercielt anlagte danske film med etniske minoriteter i bærende roller. Men derudover bidrager filmen til en dekonstruktion af den forskelstænkning, som er så altdominerende i den offentlige debat om indvandrere her til lands.

Fuld tekst: https://www.kosmorama.org/kosmorama/artikler/en-fremmed-kommer-til-byen-mgp-missionens-bud-pa-inter-etnisk-nytaenkning-i.

Jørndrup, Hanne. ‘Dem vi taler om’: Etniske minoriteter i danske nyhedsmedier. (2017) [PDF]

Jørndrup, Hanne. ‘Dem vi taler om’: Etniske minoriteter i danske nyhedsmedier. Edited by Roskilde Universitet Center for Nyhedsforskning, JP/Politikenshus, and Ansvarlig Presse, København: Ansvarlig Presse, 2017.

ETNISKE MINORITETER I NYHEDSBILLEDET3Indvandrere og efterkommere er genstand for stor opmærksomhed og debat i det danske sam-fund. Medier, politikere og befolkning har over de seneste årtier haft en kontinuerlig interesse for spørgsmål om, hvor mange og hvilke indvandrere Danmark modtager, samt hvordan og hvorvidt disse er integreret i det danske samfund. I relation hertil diskuteres også spørgsmål om religion, traditioner, kvindesyn, værdier m.m. Skiftende regeringer har indført forskellige lovgivningstiltag for at regulere indvandreres adgang til Danmark, ligesom generelle integrationsspørgsmål over de seneste mange år har været et helt centralt emne ved folketingsvalg og i den politiske debat. Alt dette får borgerne først og fremmest indtryk af gennem nyhedsmedierne.

Spørgsmål om indvandrere og efterkommere er altså markant tilstede på mediernes dagsorden og har været det i flere årtier.

Det er dog ikke ensbetydende med, at indvandrere og efterkommere selv får tilsvarende plads og taletid i medierne. Denne rapport undersøger, hvorvidt nyhedsmedierne kun taler om indvan-drere og efterkommere, eller om de også taler med dem. I 2012 udkom den første undersøgelse af mediernes dækning af indvandrere og efterkommere under titlen “Nydanskerne i nyhedsmedierne”. Undersøgelsen var lavet ud fra et ønske om at skabe et kvalificeret grundlag for debatter om indvandrere og efterkommeres tilstedeværelse og optræden i danske nyhedsmedier.Denne rapport er en opfølgning på rapporten fra 2012 og bygger på de samme grundlæggende spørgsmål for at lave en kortlægning af nyhedsbilledet: Hvor meget fylder indvandrere og efterkommer i det danske nyhedsbillede? Hvilke nyhedshistorier optræder de i? Hvilken rolle spiller de i nyhedsdækningen?

Rapporten er beskrivende og kvantitativ og bygger på kodningen af 2966 nyhedskilder i 1190 nyhedshistorier fra ni danske medier fra udvalgte dage i de første 14 uger af 2016. De kvantitative opgørelser over nyhedskilder, stofområder og kildetyper vil blive diskuteret i forhold til, dels tal fra Danmarks Statistiks rapport “Indvandrere i Danmark 2016” og dels generelle karakteristika ved danske mediers praksis.

PDF: https://pluralisterne.dk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/AP_Dem-vi-taler-om_2017.pdf

Khawaja, Iram. To belong everywhere and nowhere: fortællinger om muslimskhed, fællesgørelse og belonging. (2010) [PDF]

Khawaja, Iram. To belong everywhere and nowhere: fortællinger om muslimskhed, fællesgørelse og belonging. Roskilde: Dissertation. Roskilde Universitet, 2010.

Denne afhandling tager udgangspunkt i en interesse i at udforske spørgsmåletom, hvordandet er muligt at blive til som et ungtmuslimsk subjekti religiøse fællesskaber  i  København.  Dette  spørgsmål  undersøges  på  grundlag  af  en ambition  om  at lade  de  unges  egne stemmer  og fortællinger  komme  i forgrunden  i  forhold  til  de ofte  stereotypiserende  og  andetgørende  images, dereksisterer ommuslimer.Det gælder særligt unge muslimer, der tager del i religiøse    fællesskaber,    hvilket    fordrer    en    nærmere    undersøgelse    af betydningen  af  fællesskab.Det  sammenholdes  med  etfokus  på  belonging. Afhandlingen er på således bygget op om en multiaksial opmærksomhed  på, fælleshed, belonging og muslimskhedudfra en todelt interesse i: 1.Empirisk  udforskning  af  unge  muslimers  levede  liv  i  forhold  til  et fokus  på,  hvordan  de  positionerer  sig  i  forskellige  fællesgørende konteksterog  i  denne  sammenhæng  fortæller  sig  selv  frem  som muslimske subjekter.2.Teoretisk-begrebslig  udvikling,  der  kan  rykke  ved  og  tilbyde  nye måder at konceptualisere muslimskhed, fælleshed og belonging.  Det multiaksiale udgangspunkt og dets forskellige afgrænsninger ekspliciteres i kapitel 1. Afhandlingen  er  grundet  i  en poststrukturalistisk  og  socialkonstruktionistisk informeret  optik,  der  sammenlæser  et  foucauldiansk  og  deleuziansk perspektiv  medkonkrete  begreber  somf.eks.  kontekst,  fælleshed  og positionering.De metateoretiske og begrebslige aspekter ekspliciteres i kapitel 2, men der arbejdes videre med dem i afhandlingens analytiske læsninger.Det empiriske omdrejningspunkt for afhandlingen, som beskrives i kapitel 3, erbaseret  på deltagerobservationer  i  udvalgte  religiøse  foreninger  og fællesheder i København, samt kvalitative interviews af unge muslimer, med forskellige  kønnede,  etniske  og  racialetilhørsforhold. De  analysestrategiske greb  gøres  synlige  i  kapitel  4,  og  det  bliver  her  tydeligt,at  analysen struktureres om forskellige destabiliserende læsninger.  Afhandlingens  analyse  ersåledes  bygget  op  om som  et  rhizommed forskellige  akser  og  læsninger, som  er delt  op  i  tre  centralekapitler,  der  340henholdsvis  gør  fælleshed(kap.  5),  subjektiveringsbevægelser (kap.  6) og belonging(kap.7)til forgrund. Kapitlerne  er  vævet  sammen  af  forskellige  teoretisk-begrebslige  bevægelser, og  det  er  således  muligt  at  se  multiple  sammenhængende  overskridende bevægelser fra et klassisk fællesskabsbegreb til konceptet om fællesgørelse, fra intersektionalitet til transsektionalitet samt bevægelsen fra positionering til et translokalt  og  kropsligt  perspektiv  på  belonging.  Disse  bevægelser  udføres bl.a. på    grundlag    af    dynamiske    sammenlæsninger    af    feministiske, postkoloniale  og  poststrukturalistiske  perspektiver  på  kropslighed,  desire, translokalitet og diaspora, og kan mere generelt relateres til en metateoretisk bevægelse fra en konstruktionistisk til en post-konstruktionistisk optik.    De begrebslige  overskridelser  er forbundet  med  de  empirisk  fokuserede analytiske læsninger,  som peger på  en  forståelse  af muslimskhed som en flerstrenget proces, der bl.a. er flettet sammen af:

·Multisituerede    fællesgørende    bevægelser:    De    unge    muslimer konstruerer fælleshed på forskellige måder og anvender muslimskhed som central akse i konstruktionen af en ”naturlig” fælleshed  om  at være  muslimske  andre.  Ofte  er  fællesheden  om  at  være  muslimske andre forbundet med en etnisk andetgørende fælleshed. Fællesgørelse konstrueres    i    denne    sammenhæng    igennem    subjektiverende bevægelser og en desire for belonging og genkendelse. ·Intersektionelle og transsektionelle subjektiveringsbevægelser, der går i retning af en selvfremstilling som passende og intelligibelt religiøst andet  subjekt,  men  som  ofte  sammenlæser  etnisk  andethed  med religøs  andethed.  Det  er  forbundet  med  forskellige  muligheder  for kropsligt  at  forhandle  sin  synlige/ikke-synlige  muslimskhed  og andethed i forhold til forskelligedisciplinerende blikke. ·Diasporiske  konstruktioner  af  hjem  og  belonging,  der  fører  til  nye nye  måder at  forhandledistinktionerne  mellem  hjemland,  hjem  og belonging. Bestemte  lokationer,  subjektpositioner  og  kategorier investeres med hjemliggørende desires. Hjem er følgelig ikke et sted men en desire for belonging.Muslimskhed  konceptualiseres  således  som  en  decentraliseret  bevægelse,  der er  flettet  sammen  af  de  unges  forskellige  gørelser af  fælleshed,  belonging  og subjektivering.Præmisserne forudviklingen og fremskrivningen af disse teoretisk-analytiske og empirisk-analytiske læsningereksploreres i kapitel 8, hvor der sættesfokus på  forskerpositionering.  Forskerpositionering  diskuteres  som  konkrete  341positioneringsmuligheder  som  kvindeligt  og  etnisk  kropsmarkeret  religiøs andet forskerubjekt i et politiseretforskningsfelt.  De midlertidige analytiske lukninger opsummeres i kapitel 9, hvor der samles op på centrale teoretisk-begrebslige og empiriske snit fra de unges levede liv.  Det bliver i denne forbindelse tydeligt, at afhandlingen tilbyder et rhizomatisk perspektiv  på muslimskhed som  en decentraliseret  bevægelse,som er forbundet  med  og  defineret  af  deunges  forskellige  gørelser  af  fælleshed, belonging  og  subjektivering.  Det  kommer bl.a.  kommer  til  udtryk  i  nye  og transsektionelle  betydningskonstellationer  som  f.eks.  konstruktioner  af  en ”dansk  muslimskhed”,  en  kosmopolitisk  hjemliggørelse  af  verden,  og konstruktionen af muslimskhed som translokalt hjemog multirettet desire.

https://forskning.ruc.dk/da/publications/to-belong-everywhere-and-nowhere-fort%C3%A6llinger-om-muslimskhed-f%C3%A6ll

PDF: https://www.academia.edu/31322749/To_belong_everywhere_and_nowhere_fort%C3%A6llinger_om_muslimskhed_f%C3%A6llesskab_og_belonging.

Lapina, Linda. ‘Recruited into Danishness? Affective Autoethnography of Passing as Danish’. (2018) [PDF]

Lapiņa, Linda. ‘Recruited into Danishness? Affective Autoethnography of Passing as Danish’. European Journal of Women’s Studies, vol. 25, no. 1, SAGE Publications Ltd, Feb. 2018, pp. 56–70.

This article critically examines emergence of Danishness via an autoethnography of passing as Danish. Drawing on feminist scholarship, the author conceptualizes passing as an embodied, affective and discursive relation; simultaneously spontaneous and laboured, fleeting and solid, emergent and constrained by past becomings. Once positioned as a young female uneducated Eastern European love migrant in Denmark, the author now usually passes as an accomplished migrant. However, conducting fieldwork in Copenhagen, she found herself passing as Danish. These shifting positionings from (un)wanted migrant to un(re)marked majority comprised a unique boundary position for tracing Danishness. Her body and Danishness became aligned, while other bodies were ejected. These fluctuating (dis)alignments highlighted potentialities of proximity to Danishness. Using autoethnography and memory work, the author develops an affective methodology. The encounters’ embodied affective circulations are simultaneously collective capacities illuminating material-discursive-affective contours of Danishness. The article makes a theoretical and methodological contribution to feminist-inspired research on race, whiteness, embodiment and affect in Nordic and European contexts.

doi:10.1177/1350506817722175.

PDF: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1350506817722175

Schmidt, Garbi. ‘Law and Identity: Transnational Arranged Marriages and the Boundaries of Danishness’. (2011)

Schmidt, Garbi. ‘Law and Identity: Transnational Arranged Marriages and the Boundaries of Danishness’. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, vol. 37, no. 2, Routledge, Feb. 2011, pp. 257–275.

In Denmark, the practice of transnational arranged marriages among immigrants has stirred debate on several levels of society. One effect of the debate is a tightened regulation of family formation migration, seen as an effective means both of limiting the number of immigrants and of furthering processes of social integration. Within media-based and political debates, transnational marriages are frequently described as practices destructive both to individual freedom and to Danish national identity. Nonetheless, it is a practice in which both minority and majority citizens engage, one that frames both their family lives and their lives as citizens. This article analyses the dynamic relationship between public discourse and practices of transnational marriage. The first part describes how political and legislative perceptions of transnational (arranged) marriages are situated within a discussion of ‘Danishness’. The second part describes how second-generation immigrants from Turkey and Pakistan, all of whom have married someone from their country of origin, articulate how public discourse on transnationally arranged marriages affects their lives. This part particularly focuses on the informants’ expressions of autonomy and choice and their adaptations of such concepts to understandings of social belonging, inclusion and identity formation vis-à-vis the Danish nation-state.

doi:10.1080/1369183X.2011.521339.

https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2011.521339.

Schmidt, Garbi. ‘“Grounded” Politics: Manifesting Muslim Identity as a Political Factor and Localized Identity in Copenhagen’. (2012)

Schmidt, Garbi. ‘“Grounded” Politics: Manifesting Muslim Identity as a Political Factor and Localized Identity in Copenhagen’. Ethnicities, vol. 12, no. 5, SAGE Publications, Oct. 2012, pp. 603–622.

A prominent strand within current migration research argues that, to understand the participation of immigrants in their host societies, we must focus on their incorporation into the cities in which they settle. This article narrows the perspective further by focusing on the role that immigrants play within one particular neighbourhood: Nørrebro in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. The article introduces the concept of grounded politics to analyse how groups of Muslim immigrants in Nørrebro use the space, relationships and history of the neighbourhood for identity political statements. The article further describes how national political debates over the Muslim presence in Denmark affect identity political manifestations within Nørrebro. By using Duncan Bell’s concept of mythscape (Bell, 2003), the article shows how some political actors idealize Nørrebro’s past to contest the present ethnic and religious diversity of the neighbourhood and, further, to frame what they see as the deterioration of genuine Danish identity.

doi:10.1177/1468796811432839.

Soei, Aydin. Omar – og de andre: vrede unge mænd og modborgerskab. (2018)

Soei, Aydin. Omar – og de andre: vrede unge mænd og modborgerskab. Gads Forlag, 2018.

”Mange har en følelse af at være andenrangsborgere. Og dét at folk inderst inde godt ved, at de ikke er accepterede i Danmark, gør jo ondt.”  Sådan lyder det fra en af de ’vrede unge mænd’, som sociologen Aydin Soei har talt med til bogen Omar – og de andre. Bogen handler om kriminalitetstruede unge mænd med minoritetsbaggrund og deres oplevelse af modborgerskab, som kan få dem til at vende det danske samfund ryggen. Flertallet af de unge fra landets udsatte områder lever helt almindelige liv med skole, job og familie, men nogle ender som radikaliserede, som bandemedlemmer eller storkriminelle. Én enkelt, Omar el-Hussein, opgav helt at være en del af samfundet, da han i 2015 dræbte to uskyldige mænd i terrorangrebet ved Krudttønden og den jødiske synagoge i København. Omar el-Husseins baggrund minder om så mange andre kriminalitetstruede minoritetsdrenges, viser bogens gennemgang, men udgangen på hans historie blev, at han valgte at agere som en ekstrem modborger. 

I 2018 er det ti år siden, at Danmark blev ramt af landsdækkende optøjer i udsatte boligområder, og at den danske bandekonflikt brød ud og udviklede sig til en permanent størrelse. Begge fænomener er skelsættende i dansk ‘ghettohistorie’ og beskrives i Omar – og de andre, der sammenligner udfordringerne med radikalisering, bander og optøjer i den danske, amerikanske og franske ‘ghetto’.  Bogen er en fortsættelse af Vrede unge mænd (2011), hvorfra enkelte af kapitlerne går igen i nye og opdaterede versioner. Nogle af de unge, som forfatteren mødte første gang for et årti siden, geninterviewes side om side med nye stemmer, der bidrager til at tegne et portræt af udviklingen blandt en særlig gruppe unge i landets udsatte områder.

https://gad.dk/omar-og-de-andre

Soei, Aydin. Vrede unge mænd: optøjer og kampen for anerkendelse i et nyt Danmark. (2011)

Soei, Aydin. Vrede unge mænd: optøjer og kampen for anerkendelse i et nyt Danmark. København: Tiderne skifter, 2011.

Nørrebro februar 2008. Gaderne står i brand. Politiet angribes med brosten og andet kasteskyts i kvarteret omkring Blågårds Plads. Unge tænder ild til biler og containere. Medierne beskriver optøjerne som en nærmest krigslignende tilstand. En udløsende faktor har været de mange ofte krænkende kropsvisitationer i de såkaldte visitationszoner. I løbet af få dage breder urolighederne sig til andre socialt belastede boligområder i Danmark over Tingbjerg og Vestegnen til Voldsmose og Gjellerupparken. Begivenhederne kaldes i medierne Danmarkshistoriens værste indvandreroptøjer og sammenlignes med tidligere optøjer i de franske forstæder. Der peges også på bandekriminalitet religiøs vrede og kedsomhed i vinterferien. Men hvad var det i virkeligheden der udløste uroen og hvorfor blev en lokal konflikt på Nørrebro til et landsdækkende fænomen?

Vrede unge mænd forsøger at besvare disse spørgsmål ved at afdække udviklingen i landets udsatte boligområder fra slutningen af 90 erne og frem. Bogen bygger på interviews og samtaler igennem en lang periode med nogle af de unge selv både dem som var på gaden og dem som afstod fra at deltage i optøjerne og med skolelærere socialarbejdere betjente og pædagoger. Bogen arbejder i journalistisk form med sociologisk teori om vrede unge mænd i et forsøg på at trænge om bag mediernes dækning af ghettoen og dens unge beboere.

https://www.gyldendal.dk/produkter/vrede-unge-mand-9788702220704

Spanger, Marlene. ‘Doing Love in the Borderland of Transnational Sex Work: Female Thai Migrants in Denmark’. (2013)

Spanger, Marlene. ‘Doing Love in the Borderland of Transnational Sex Work: Female Thai Migrants in Denmark’. NORA – Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, vol. 21, no. 2, Routledge, June 2013, pp. 92–107.

By bringing love to the fore as an unfixed category, this article analyses the highly complex lives of female Thai migrants who sell sex in Denmark. In doing so, the article challenges the static and rather normative binary categories of “sex work” versus “prostitution” and “empowered woman” versus “victim of human trafficking” that are produced in the literature on sex work and prostitution. This binary approach is likely to portray the lives and subject positions of female migrants who sell sex in a rather one-sided way. The article argues that the category of love is highly relevant in studies of transnational sex work if we want to grasp the complexity of the lives of female migrants who sell sexual services.

doi:10.1080/08038740.2013.781543.

Yael Enoch. ‘The Intolerance of a Tolerant People: Ethnic Relations in Denmark’. (1994) [PDF]

Yael Enoch. ‘The Intolerance of a Tolerant People: Ethnic Relations in Denmark’. Ethnic & Racial Studies, vol. 17, no. 2, Apr. 1994, p. 282.

The Danes have traditionally seen themselves as an enlightened and tolerant people, regarding with contempt those who, like many white Americans or South Africans, hold negative attitudes towards ethnic or racial minorities. This positive self-image was confirmed during World War II when in an impressive rescue operation almost all Danish Jews (the only sizeable minority group in Denmark at the time) were helped to safety in neutral Sweden. During the 1960’s and 1970’s Danish society – until then one of the most homogeneous societies in Europe – became increasingly more heterogeneous through the influx of economic migrants – ‘foreign workers’ – mainly from Turkey, Pakistan and Yugoslavia. For the first time the Danes have had to deal with ethnic minorities whose culture, language, religion and physical appearance differ significantly from the majority’s. On the basis of a comprehensive attitude survey, it appears that the Danes today are less tolerant towards ‘foreign workers’ than might have been expected on the basis of their past record. This article considers whether this intolerance can be explained in terms of (1) the structure of present-day Danish society; (2) the general characteristics of the respondents (age, gender, etc.), or (3) the social and cultural characteristics of the new minorities. It is suggested that ethnic prejudice exists latently even in apparently tolerant societies and tends to surface when a ‘suitable’ target group becomes available.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870.1994.9993825

PDF: http://www1.geo.ntnu.edu.tw/~moise/Data/Books/Reach%20of%20culture/cultural%20racism.pdf