Tag: policy

Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær. ‘Ghetto–Society–Problem: A Discourse Analysis of Nationalist Othering’. (2016)

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær. ‘Ghetto–Society–Problem: A Discourse Analysis of Nationalist Othering’. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, vol. 16, no. 1, 2016, pp. 83–99.

This article examines the role of the ghetto in Danish political discourse. While ghetto studies have previously been conducted within the field of urban sociology, the article departs from this tradition in offering a discourse analytical perspective on the former Danish government’s strategy against ghettoization (The Ghetto Plan). Integrating perspectives from the literature on nationalism with Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse analytical framework, the analysis argues that the ghetto marks an antagonistic anti-identity to Danish society. This discursive construction of the ghetto against society has the effect of confirming Danish identity, while at the same time precluding possibilities of the ghetto’s integration in society. Highlighting these implications, the study feeds into societal debates on integration, and suggests a framework for studying nationalist othering in a discourse analytical perspective.

doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/sena.12173.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/sena.12173.

Jørgensen, Martin Bak, and Trine Lund Thomsen. ‘“Needed but Undeserving”: Contestations of Entitlement in the Danish Policy Framework on Migration and Integration’. (2018)

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Jørgensen, Martin Bak, and Trine Lund Thomsen. ‘“Needed but Undeserving”: Contestations of Entitlement in the Danish Policy Framework on Migration and Integration’. Diversity and Contestations over Nationalism in Europe and Canada, Eds. John Erik Fossum, Riva Kastoryano, and Birte Siim, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2018, 337–364.

This chapter investigates how entitlement is being narratively framed through contestations and negotiations in the policy regimes on labour migration. The chapter focuses particularly on the case of Denmark. It has been argued that the Nordic welfare states can be characterised as expressions of a universal welfare state; however, when it comes to the Nordic immigration regimes, there is less similarity. Contrary to studies emphasising the role of right-wing populist parties, our claim is that we find a decreasing level of contestation among the political parties and increasing support of welfare chauvinism. Furthermore, the chapter argues that we have seen an increased culturalisation becoming the basis for entitlement and access and thus creating new stratifications of exclusion and inclusion.

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-58987-3_13.

https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58987-3_13.

Juhl Jørgensen, Frederik. How to Develop Policies That Foster Refugee Integration and Are Supported by Voters. (2020) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Juhl Jørgensen, Frederik. How to Develop Policies That Foster Refugee Integration and Are Supported by Voters. Dissertation. Aarhus University, 2020,

This dissertation contributes to our understanding of a fundamental policy challenge that refugee-receiving countries face: how to develop policies that foster integration and are supported by voters. It splits this challenge into two. On the one hand, there is the policy goal of promoting integration. This leads to research question 1: how does integration policies affect refugee integration. On the other hand, policy makers face the electoral constraint that policies need to be supported by voters. This leads to research question 2: does refugees’ integration success or failure affect public support for policy. The dissertation takes its theoretical point of departure in two contrasting theoretical paradigms that structure the debates about integration policy. One paradigm, argues that strict policies—such as limited benefits or forced placement—promote integration. The contrasting paradigm, holds that lenient policies—like equal benefits or voluntary placement—catalyze social mobility and integration. I study these contrasting expectations in the context of two Danish policy reforms: the start help policy and the forced placement policy. Combined, these policies have formed the backbone of Danish integration policy for the past two decades. The start help policy lowered refugees’ social assistance benefits by up to 50 percent for new refugees who obtained residency after July 1 2002. The forced placement policy fundamentally changed the Danish dispersal system as of January 1 1999: new refugees who obtained residency after this date were subject to forced placement, whereas refugees who arrived earlier were placed on a voluntary basis. I exploit these cutoffs in regression dis- continuity designs that just like controlled randomized experiments control for all confounding factors by design. The reforms provide rigorous research designs (i.e., natural experiments) for causal identification. My data are based on the Danish national registers and combine information about the treatments (i.e., the cutoffs) with information on relevant integration outcomes. Overall, the findings show that the start help and forced placement policy are too strict if the aim is to maximize integration. For policy design, this means that policy makers should reassess current policies: they should pro- vide refugees with equal benefits to prevent negative effects from economic deprivation and remove restrictions on relocation to leverage synergy effects between individual characteristics and place characteristics. Theoretically, the findings support the paradigm, which argues that equal benefits and voluntary placement catalyze social mobility and integration. These results align with recent studies, which show that less restrictive policies—i.e., fewer restrictions 87 on citizenship acquisition (Hainmueller et al. 2015; 2017a; 2019), faster processing of asylum applications (Hainmueller et al. 2016; Hvidtfeldt et al. 2018), protection of unauthorized immigrants (Orrenius and Zavodny 2012; Hainmueller et al. 2017b), and fewer restrictions on asylum seekers’ possibility of employment (Marbach et al. 2018)—are catalysts of integration. In spite of this evidence, we continuously experience that policy makers tighten integration policies and thereby decrease refugees’ chances of success- ful integration. One plausible reason for the mismatch between the supply of policies and the aim of maximizing integration is that domestic voters demand strict policies (Lawrence and Sides 2014; Hopkins et al. 2019). This constrains policy makers’ ability to deliver policies that achieve the goal of promoting integration. The last part of the dissertation moves on to study this policy constraint and explores strategies that can potentially create leeway to develop less strict policies that would promote integration. This part of the dissertation examines whether it is possible to promote citizens preferences regarding integration policy by providing them with information about refugees’ actual integration success or failure. In particular, we conduct a large-scale survey experiment that isolates the effects of correct information about non-Western immigrants’ welfare dependency rates, their crime rates, and their overall size in relation to the total population. Two opposing views structure the theoretical expectations to the impacts of this type of information. One view that draws on Bayesian learning models argues that citizens use information to update their evaluations of immigrants’ integration performance into the host society. In this logic, the provision of information may be expected to promote more positive preferences regarding policy (Sides and Citrin 2007; Nadeau et al. 1993). Another view holds that people acknowledge correct information and update their factual beliefs, but reinterpret the information in a selective fashion that justifies their existing opinions (Gaines et al. 2007). In this logic, the provision of information has little, if any, influence on citizens’ policy preferences. In line with previous work, the findings first show that citizens’ are very skeptical of non-Western immigrants and markedly exaggerate problems related to immigration. In addition, there is a strong correlation between skepticism and support for anti-immigration policies. This demonstrates that pol- icy makers indeed face pronounced electoral constraints when designing integration policy. Second, the results demonstrate that while participants update their factual beliefs in light of correct information, they remain unwilling to change their policy preferences. These findings support conclusions from ear- lier work (Lawrence and Sides 2014; Hopkins et al. 2019). As a novel finding, we show that the link between facts and policy beliefs breaks down because people interpret the correct information in a belief-consistent manner that al- lows them to avoid using the new information to guide their policy prefer- ences. Overall, this means policy makers seemingly cannot rely on “explaining the facts” as a strategy to promote more favorable integration policy views and thereby create leeway to develop less strict policies that would foster integra- tion.

Dansk resumé Lande der modtager flygtninge står over for den fundamentale politiske ud- fordring: hvordan udvikles politikker der fremmer integrationen og som samtidig bakkes op af vælgerne. Afhandlingen bidrager til forståelsen af problemstilling, og inddeler udfordringen i to forskningsspørgsmål. På den ene side er der målet om at udvikle politikker, der fremmer integrationen, hvilket fører til forskningsspørgsmål 1: hvordan påvirker integrationspolitikker flygtninges integration. På den anden side begrænses politiske beslutningstagere af, at det er nødvendigt at politikkerne møder opbakning i befolkningen. Dette fører til forskningsspørgsmål 2: påvirker flygtninges integrationssucces eller -fiasko befolkningens opbakningen til policy. Afhandlingen tager sit teoretiske afsæt i to modsatrettede teoretiske paradigmer, som ofte strukturerer debatten omhandlende integrationspolitik. Det første paradigme argumenterer for, at strengere politikker, såsom begrænset adgang til overførselsindkomster eller tvungen placering, fremmer integrationen. Det andet paradigme argumenterer modsat for, at mindre strenge politikker, såsom lige adgang til overførselsindkomster eller frivillig placering, fremskynder social mobilitet og integration. Til at studere disse modsatrettede forventninger anvender jeg henholdsvis den danske starthjælpsreform og reformen af den danske placeringspolitik, der tilsammen har udgjort rygraden af dansk integrationspolitik de seneste to årtier. Starthjælpspolitikken nedsatte flygtninges overførselsindkomst med op til 50 procent for nye flygtninge, der opnåede opholdstilladelse efter 1. juli 2002. Den danske placeringspolitik blev fundamentalt ændret fra 1. januar 1999, hvor spredningen af flygtninge overgik fra et frivilligt til tvunget regime. Jeg udnytter disse tærskler i regressionsdiskontinuitetsdesigns, der ligesom randomiserede eksperimenter per konstruktion kontrollerer for alternative forklaringer. Reformerne udgør dermed naturlige eksperimenter og stringente forskningsdesigns for kausal inferens. Mit data er baseret på de national danske registre og kombinerer information omkring reformernes tærskelværdier med information omkring relevante integrationsvariable. Overordnet viser resultaterne, at starthjælpen og tvungen placering er for stramme, såfremt målet er, at fremme integrationen. For policy betyder det, at de politiske beslutningstagere bør genoverveje disse politikker. Konkret bør de give flygtninge ret til regulære overførselsindkomster for at forhindre de negative konsekvenser der følger af økonomiske afsavn. Endvidere bør de fjerne den tvungne placering, der forhindrer udnyttelsen af potentielle positive synergieffekter, der måtte være mellem flygtninges og deres placerings karakteristika. Teoretisk støtter resultaterne det andet paradigme, der argumenterer for, at lige overførselsindkomster og frivillig placering fremskynder social mobilitet og integration. Resultaterne flugter ned den seneste forskning, der viser, at færre begrænsninger på erhvervelsen af statsborgerskab (Hainmueller et al. 2015; 2017a; 2019), hurtigere behandling af asylansøgninger (Hainmueller et al. 2016; Hvidtfeldt et al. 2018), beskyttelse af illegale indva drer (Orrenius and Zavodny 2012; Hainmueller et al. 2017b), samt færre begrænsninger af asylansøgeres muligheder for at arbejde (Marbach et al. 2018) fremmer integrationen. På trods af disse resultater oplever vi en stadig stigende tendens til, at de politiske beslutningstagere strammer forskellige integrationspolitikker. Der- med besværliggør de faktisk flygtninges integration fremfor at hjælpe den på vej. En potentiel årsag til dette misforhold mellem målet om at fremme integrationen og politikudbuddet er, at vælgerne rent faktisk efterspørger disse politikker (Lawrence and Sides 2014; Hopkins et al. 2019), og dermed begrænser beslutningstagernes muligheder for at udvikle alternativer, der kan levere på målet om at fremskynde integrationen. Den sidste del af afhandlingen beskæftiger sig med disse vælgermæssige begrænsninger, og udforsker strategier, beslutningstagerne potentielt kan an- vende til at skabe sig selv spillerum til at udvikle politikker, der fremmer integrationen. Denne del af afhandlingen undersøger, om det er muligt at fremme vælgernes præferencer for integrationspolitik ved at præsentere dem for in- formation om flygtninges faktiske integration. Konkret anvender vi et survey-eksperiment til at isolere effekterne af at give vores respondenter korrekt in- formation om ikke-vestlige indvandreres afhængighed af overførselsindkomster, deres kriminalitetsrater samt størrelsen af den ikke-vestlige indvandrer- befolkning relativt til den samlede befolkning. To modsatrette perspektiver strukturerer hvordan denne type information kan forventes at påvirke respondenterne. Det første perspektiv, der baserer sig på bayesianske læringsmodeller, argumenterer for, at vælgere anvender information til at opdatere deres evalueringer af immigranternes faktiske integration. Følgeligt forventes det, at de justerer deres policy præferencer i en mere positiv retning (Sides and Citrin 2007; Nadeau et al. 1993). Det andet perspektiv anerkender at vælgerne måske anvender information til at opdatere deres faktiske overbevisninger, men argumenterer modsat for, at de fortolker information på selektiv vis således de er i stand til at retfærdiggøre deres eksisterende meninger (Gaines et al. 2007). Dermed kan det ikke forventes, at information har nogen effekt på deres policy præferencer. På linje med den eksisterende litteratur viser mine resultater for det første, at vælgerne er meget skeptiske overfor ikke-vestlige indvandrere, og markant overestimerer problemer relaterer til denne immigration. Derudover viser resultaterne, at der er en stærk korrelation mellem at være skeptisk og fore- trække stramme politikker. Samlet viser det, at beslutningstager står overfor markante elektorale begrænsninger i deres overvejelser om udformningen af integrationspolitikker. For det andet viser resultaterne, at vores respondenter er parate til at opdatere deres faktiske overbevisninger i lyset af ny information, men de forbliver modvillige i forhold til at justere deres policy præferencer. Dette underbygger konklusionerne fra tidligere studier i andre kontekster (Lawrence and Sides 2014; Hopkins et al. 2019). Vi viser samtidig, at linket mellem fakta og policy bryder sammen, fordi vores respondenter fortolker den nye information på en måde, der er i overensstemmelse med deres eksisterende meninger, hvilket retfærdiggør at de undgår at anvende den nye information til at guide deres policy præference. Samlet set betyder det, at beslutningstagerne tilsyneladende ikke kan regne med, at det er tilstrækkeligt at for- klare de faktiske forhold, som en strategi til at fremme mere favorable integrationspolitiske holdninger og dermed skabe sig selv et spillerum til at ud- vikle politikker, der fremskynder integrationen.

PDF: https://politica.dk/fileadmin/politica/Dokumenter/ph.d.-afhandlinger/frederik_juhl.pdf.

Keskinen, Suvi. ‘Securitized Intimacies, Welfare State and the “Other” Family’. (2016) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Keskinen, Suvi. ‘Securitized Intimacies, Welfare State and the “Other” Family’. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society, vol. 24, no. 2, Dec. 2017, pp. 154–177.

Analyzing policy documents that aim to tackle violence in minority families, the article examines how normativities related to family, ethnicity, and race are created and challenged. The article develops an analysis of how neoliberal governmentality operates in two Nordic welfare societies. It shows how the governing of ethnicized and racialized minority families is built on three logics: the normalizing family, normative (liberal) individuality, and securitized border rhetoric. Identifying three policy frames (violence, immigration, and security frames), the article argues that the presented ideas of family life and individuality are based on normative whiteness.

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/679204.

PDF: https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/files/108288979/Keskinen_Suvi_Securitized_Intimacies_2017.pdf

Keskinen, Suvi, Ov Cristian Norocel, and Martin Bak Jørgensen. ‘The Politics and Policies of Welfare Chauvinism under the Economic Crisis’. (2016) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Keskinen, Suvi, Ov Cristian Norocel, and Martin Bak Jørgensen. ‘The Politics and Policies of Welfare Chauvinism under the Economic Crisis’. Critical Social Policy, vol. 36, no. 3, Aug. 2016, pp. 321–329.

The ongoing economic crisis that emerged in the wake of the global recession in 2008, and was followed by the more recent crisis of the Eurozone, has introduced new themes and remoulded old ways of approaching the welfare state, immigration, national belonging and racism in Northern Europe. This article identifies two main ways of understanding welfare chauvinism: 1) as a broad concept that covers all sorts of claims and policies to reserve welfare benefits for the ‘native’ population; 2) an ethno-nationalist and racialising political agenda, characteristic especially of right-wing populist parties. Focusing on the relationship between politics and policies, we examine how welfare chauvinist political agendas are turned into policies and what hinders welfare chauvinist claims from becoming policy matters and welfare practices. It is argued that welfare chauvinism targeting migrants is part of a broader neoliberal restructuring of the welfare state and of welfare retrenchment.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018315624168.

PDF: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0261018315624168

Keskinen, Suvi, Mari Toivanen, and Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir. Undoing homogeneity in the Nordic region: migration, difference and the politics of solidarity. (2019) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Keskinen, Suvi, Mari Toivanen, and Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir. Undoing homogeneity in the Nordic region: migration, difference and the politics of solidarity. 2019.

This book critically engages with dominant ideas of cultural homogeneity in the Nordic countries and contests the notion of homogeneity as a crucial determinant of social cohesion and societal security. Showing how national identities in the Nordic region have developed historically around notions of cultural and racial homogeneity, it exposes the varied histories of migration and the longstanding presence of ethnic minorities and indigenous people in the region that are ignored in dominant narratives. With attention to the implications of notions of homogeneity for the everyday lives of migrants and racialised minorities in the region, as well as the increasing securitisation of those perceived not to be part of the homogenous nation, this volume provides detailed analyses of how welfare state policies, media, and authorities seek to manage and govern cultural, religious, and racial differences. With studies of national minorities, indigenous people and migrants in the analysis of homogeneity and difference, it sheds light on the agency of minorities and the intertwining of securitisation policies with notions of culture, race, and religion in the government of difference. As such it will appeal to scholars and students in social sciences and humanities with interests in race and ethnicity, migration, postcolonialism, Nordic studies, multiculturalism, citizenship, and belonging.

Table of contents: 1. Narrations of Homogeneity, Waning Welfare States, and the Politics of Solidarity   Part 1: Histories of Homogeneity and Difference  2. Forgetting Diversity? Norwegian Narratives of Ethnic and Cultural Homogeneity  3. Myths of Ethnic Homogeneity: The Danish Case  4. Finnish Media Representations of the Sámi in the 1960s and 1970s  Part 2: Governing and Negotiating Differences  5. Knowledge about Roma and Travellers in Nordic Schools: Paradoxes, Constraints, and Possibilities  6. Problematising the Urban Periphery: Discourses on Social Exclusion and Suburban Youth in Sweden  7. Welfare Chauvinism at the Margins of Whiteness: Young Unemployed Russian-Speakers’ Negotiations of Worker-Citizenship in Finland  8. Starry Starry Night: Fantasies of Homogeneity in Documentary Films about Kvens and Norwegian-Pakistanis  Part 3: Questioned Homogeneity and Securitisation   9. From Welfare to Warfare: Exploring the Militarisation of the Swedish Suburb  10. “Living in fear”—Bulgarian and Romanian Street Workers’ Experiences With Aggressive Public and Private Policing  11. A ‘Muslim’ Response to the Narrative of the Enemy Within  12. Being Unknown: The Securitisation of Asylum Seekers in Iceland

https://www.routledge.com/Undoing-Homogeneity-in-the-Nordic-Region-Migration-Difference-and-the/Keskinen-Skaptadottir-Toivanen/p/book/9780367727789

PDF: https://helda.helsinki.fi//bitstream/handle/10138/316709/Undoing_Homogeneity_in_the_Nordic_Region.pdf?sequence=1.

Lemberg-Pedersen, Martin. ‘The “Imaginary World” of Nationalistic Ethics: Feasibility Constraints on Nordic Deportation Corridors Targeting Unaccompanied Afghan Minors’. (2018) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Lemberg-Pedersen, Martin. ‘The “Imaginary World” of Nationalistic Ethics: Feasibility Constraints on Nordic Deportation Corridors Targeting Unaccompanied Afghan Minors’. Etikk i Praksis – Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics, no. 2, Nov. 2018, pp. 47–68.

This article examines Swedish, Danish and Norwegian governments’ participation in the European Return Platform for Unaccompanied Minors (ERPUM) project and its failed attempts to deport unaccompanied minors (UAMs) to Afghanistan. It argues that ERPUM is an interesting and urgent case of a “deportation corridor” and suggests that this framework can benefit from analysis through normative and applied ethics and in particular discussions of feasibility constraints. It therefore identifies and critically assesses two nationalistic arguments for deportation common in Nordic politics, based on appeals to credibility and humanitarianism. Considering the growth of nationalistic immigration policies in Nordic states, the article turns the usual discussion of feasibility on its head by showing that not only cosmopolitan, but also nationalistic ethics must face up to charges of lacking realism. More specifically, it argues that the case of ERPUM illustrates how nationalistic deportation ethics may rely on inconsistent normative and erroneous empirical assumptions, which can be criticized for their arbitrariness, ideological grounding and lack of feasibility.

doi:10.5324/eip.v12i2.2425.

PDF: https://www.ntnu.no/ojs/index.php/etikk_i_praksis/article/download/2425/2861

Lenneis, Verena, and Sine Agergaard. ‘Enacting and Resisting the Politics of Belonging through Leisure. The Debate about Gender-Segregated Swimming Sessions Targeting Muslim Women in Denmark’. (2018)

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Lenneis, Verena, and Sine Agergaard. ‘Enacting and Resisting the Politics of Belonging through Leisure. The Debate about Gender-Segregated Swimming Sessions Targeting Muslim Women in Denmark’. Leisure Studies, vol. 37, no. 6, Routledge, Nov. 2018, pp. 706–720.

In 2016 women-only swimming sessions targeting Muslims made the headlines in the Danish media, precipitating great discussion about whether such sessions contributed to or impeded social integration. This article focuses on the debate in the city council of Aarhus concerning women-only swimming activities that had existed for 10 years and had been well attended. Yet, after a year of discussion, the city council voted for a municipality-wide ban on women-only swimming during public opening hours. The popularity and longevity of the sessions pose the question: Why and how has women-only swimming become a ‘problem’, in other words a leisure time physical activity that challenges current discourses on immigration and integration? The debate on women-only swimming is an interesting case to study as it testifies not only to an increasing focus on the civic integration of ethnic minorities, including their leisure practices, but also to strong resistance by the general public and the women affected. Drawing on a postcolonial feminist perspective, our analysis shows how perceptions of Danishness, gender equality and non-religious leisure become central arguments in the debate, pointing to various ways in which understandings of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and nation intersect in the current restrictive politics of belonging.

doi:10.1080/02614367.2018.1497682.

https://vbn.aau.dk/da/publications/enacting-and-resisting-the-politics-of-belonging-through-leisure-.

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.

Lindekilde, Lasse, and Mark Sedgwick. Impact of Counter-Terrorism on Communities: Denmark Background Report. (2012) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Lindekilde, Lasse, and Mark Sedgwick. Impact of Counter-Terrorism on Communities: Denmark Background Report. London: Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2012, p. 73.

This report provides background information for understanding and assessing the impact and effectiveness of Danish counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation policies on minority ethno-cultural communities, in particular Muslim ones. The report contextualises questions of impact – positive as well as negative – in Denmark in terms of the demographic/socio-economic profile of immigrants; general perceptions of threats from terrorism and perceptions of discrimination experienced by minorities; the legal framework of counter-terrorism; policies of radicalisation prevention and their implementation in practice; key institutional structures of counter-terrorism and division of labour; high profile terrorist court-cases; and developments in the general political climate and public discourse regarding issues of ‘integration’ and security.

PDF: https://www.academia.edu/2049897/Impact_of_Counter_Terrorism_on_Communities_Denmark_Background_Report

Liversage, Anika, and Mikkel Rytter. ‘A Cousin Marriage Equals a Forced Marriage: Transnational Marriages between Closely Related Spouses in Denmark’. (2015) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Liversage, Anika, and Mikkel Rytter. ‘A Cousin Marriage Equals a Forced Marriage: Transnational Marriages between Closely Related Spouses in Denmark’. Cousin Marriages: Between Tradition, Genetic Risk and Cultural Change, Eds. Alison Shaw and Aviad Raz, Oxford ; New York, NY: Berghahn, 2015, 130–153.

From introduction:

This chapter first outlines the recent historical political context of Denmark in which this specific rule of supposition took shape. Before 2001, heated debate concerned whether, and if so, how to distinguish between ‘forced marriages’ and ‘arranged marriages’ in certain immigrant groups. Later, with the introduction of the rule of supposition in 2003, the deciding factor now became whether couples were ‘closely related, and otherwise closer related relatives’ (relationships presented as highly problematic ones, with strong indications of enforcement) or not. In this respect both the problem and the potential political solution changed within a few years. Second, we present two extended cases, of the Danish-Pakistani couple Hamid and Aisha and the Danish-Turkish couple Baha and Gülser, to shed light on the experiences that transnational couples may have with the rule of supposition1. Last, to illustrate the clash between the views of the authorities and those of an affected couple about the character of their marriage, we present a third exemplary adjudication, taken from the home page of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration. Throughout, the chapter discusses the workings of state classification. Here, transnationally married couples may experience having their own understandings of their marriages overturned, and their life trajectories torqued in the confrontation with bureaucratic classifications of the state (cf. Bowker & Star 2000). The chapter also presents strategies that transnational couple may use or seek to use to put their life trajectories back on track and establish their desired family life.

PDF: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320979869_A_cousin_marriage_equals_a_forced_marriage_Transnational_marriages_between_closely_related_spouses_in_Denmark.

Midtbøen, Arnfinn H. ‘Dual Citizenship in an Era of Securitisation:: The Case of Denmark’. (2019) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Midtbøen, Arnfinn H. ‘Dual Citizenship in an Era of Securitisation:: The Case of Denmark’. Nordic Journal of Migration Research, vol. 1, no. ahead-of-print, Apr. 2019.

 When Denmark surprisingly accepted dual citizenship in 2015, the decision reflected as possible and success-oriented application, insights and profits without the two distinct lines of argument: first, accepting dual citizenship would allow Danes living abroad to keep reference to the arguments developed around 1900. The main investigation also their Danish citizenship; second, because it is considered illegitimate to make people stateless, allowing includes the period between the entry into force and the presentation in its current dual citizenship would simultaneously allow for citizenship revocation of dual citizens who engage in or version. Their function as part of the literary portrayal and narrative technique. support acts of terror. This rationale stands in striking contrast to how dual citizenship has been previously theorised. The gradual acceptance of dual citizenship in Western countries since the early 1990s has been seen either as a symptom of a post-national era or as a pragmatic adjustment to the transnational realities of international migration. By contrast, the case of Denmark shows that dual citizenship may serve as a Dedicated to Paul Placeholder lever to protect the political community of the nation-state from terrorism and, as such, function as a tool of securitisation.

doi:10.2478/njmr-2019-0014.

PDF: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332459681_Dual_Citizenship_in_an_Era_of_Securitisation

Morita, Liang. ‘The Emphasis on Ethnic Homogeneity and Japanese and Danish Immigration Policy’. (2019) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Morita, Liang. ‘The Emphasis on Ethnic Homogeneity and Japanese and Danish Immigration Policy’. World Journal of Social Science, vol. 6, no. 2, July 2019, p. 16.

This essay compares the Japanese emphasis on ethnic homogeneity in immigration policy with its counterpart in Denmark. Japan’s lack of integration policy stands out against the backdrop of Denmark’s elaborate civic integration policy. A key reason for this contrast is the criterion that Japan is for the Japanese, and one has to be ethnically and culturally Japanese to be Japanese. Nihonjinron, a discourse on Japanese cultural uniqueness, has provided ammunition for this. Denmark, on the other hand, is in principle open to those who adopt Danish values. Japan needs a strong integration policy as the number of immigrants increase. Until now, its emphasis on ethnic homogeneity has led Japan to see immigrants as outsiders and to exclude them. Denmark, on the other hand, is willing to include immigrants on equal terms, on the condition that they adopt Danish values.

doi:10.5430/wjss.v6n2p16.

PDF: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Liang_Morita/publication/334250823_The_Emphasis_on_Ethnic_Homogeneity_and_Japanese_and_Danish_Immigration_Policy/links/5d1f12c3299bf1547c98d39e/The-Emphasis-on-Ethnic-Homogeneity-and-Japanese-and-Danish-Immigration-Policy.pdf.

Mouritsen, Per, and Tore Vincents Olsen. ‘Denmark between Liberalism and Nationalism’. (2013) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Mouritsen, Per, and Tore Vincents Olsen. ‘Denmark between Liberalism and Nationalism’. Ethnic & Racial Studies, vol. 36, no. 4, Apr. 2013, pp. 691–710.

What explains the restrictive turn towards immigrants in European countries like Denmark? Are countries returning to nationalism, or are they following a general European trend towards a perfectionist, even ‘repressive’ liberalism that seeks to create ‘liberal people’ out of immigrants? Recent developments in Danish policies of integration and citizenship, education and anti-discrimination suggest a combination of these two diagnoses. The current Danish ‘integration philosophy’ leaves behind a previous concern with private choice and equal rights and opportunities to emphasize other historical elements, especially the duty to participate in upholding democracy and the egalitarian welfare community, and to promote autonomous and secular ways of life. However, the virtues of this ‘egalitarian republicanism’ are seen by right-of-centre intellectuals and politicians as rooted in a wider Christian national culture that immigrants must acquire in order to become full citizens.

doi:10.1080/01419870.2011.598233.

PDF: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00726660/file/PEER_stage2_10.1080%252F01419870.2011.598233.pdf

Mylonas, Yiannis, and Matina Noutsou. ‘The “Greferendum” and the Eurozone Crisis in the Danish Daily Press’. (2018) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Mylonas, Yiannis, and Matina Noutsou. ‘The “Greferendum” and the Eurozone Crisis in the Danish Daily Press’. Race & Class, vol. 59, no. 3, Jan. 2018, pp. 51–66. SAGE Journals.

This article presents a critical analysis of the Danish press coverage of the referendum called by the Left-led coalition government of Greece in July 2015, concerning the future of austerity policies. It focuses on the conservative daily press of Denmark, one of the ‘core’ EU countries, writing on developments in the periphery. Three main themes emerge in the study’s discourse analysis of Berlingske Tidende’s and Jyllands Posten’s coverage: ‘post-democratic realism’, ‘the upper-class gaze’, and ‘Orientalism and cultural racism’. The authors not only reveal the one-sided, elitist coverage by the rightwing papers at Europe’s centre but also point out how the principles of neoliberalism itself and the acceptance of austerity are being constantly reinforced by the media in a country like Denmark, which had previously been marked out for its more progressive welfare capitalism. Denmark’s turn to the Right (and to racism) alongside its biased coverage of the ‘Greferendum’ are examined here in the context of the way in which neoliberalism and its politico-social effects are now presented as both common sense and the only way forward.

doi:10.1177/0306396817714123.

PDF: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0306396817714123

Necef, Mehmet Ümit, and Torben Bech Dyrberg. Multikulturalismens fælder: Mørklægning og moralisme i medier, forskning og politik. (2016)

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Necef, Mehmet Ümit, and Torben Bech Dyrberg. Multikulturalismens fælder: Mørklægning og moralisme i medier, forskning og politik. Samfundslitteratur, 2016.

Opgør med en multikulturalistisk debatkultur, hvor politisk korrekthed og moralisering fortrænger politisk uenighed, og hvor bortforklaring af problemer står i vejen for skabelsen af rammer for, hvordan folk med forskellige og konfliktende værdier kan leve sammen.

Indhold:

Indledning

Kritiske fortolkninger af multikulturalisme og antiracisme  9

TORBEN BECH DYRBERG OG MEHMET ÜMIT NECEF

FØRSTE DEL KULTURRELATIVISME OG MULTIKULTURALISME SOM VENSTREFLØJSFANTASIER OG FORSKERIDEOLOGIER  37

Kapitel 1: Svensk mångfaldspolitik et studie i opportunisme 39

GÖRAN ADAMSON

Kapitel 2: Asymmetrisk kulturrelativisme om antropologiens kritiske potentiale 63

KATJA KVAALE

Kapitel 3: Indvandrerne, indvandrervennerne og det nye politiske venstre 89

TORBEN RUGBERG RASMUSSEN

ANDEN DEL ANTIRACISME SOM STIGMATISERING OG MORALISERINGENAF DEN POLITISKE DEBAT 111

Kapitel 4: Islamofobiske problemer om hvordan diskursen om islamofobi ekskluderer muslimer fra det demokratiske fællesskab 113

AJE CARLBOM

Kapitel 5: Er indvandrere racister? 131

JENS-MARTIN ERIKSEN

Kapitel 6: Tolerance og tonerance truslen mod det oplyste tolerancebegreb 147

FREDERIK STJERNFELT

Kapitel 7: Venstrefløjens selektive og moraliserende tolerance 165

TORBEN BECH DYRBERG

TREDJE DEL FORDOMME OG FJENDEBILLEDER SOM MODSTYKKE TIL DIALOG 187

Kapitel 8: Styres forskningen af frygten for at blive kaldt racist? praksisnære overvejelser 189

HENRIETTE FREES ESHOLDT

Kapitel 9: Gode intentioner? om politisk korrekthed, magt og social udsathed blandt de Andre 207

PERNILLA OUIS

Kapitel 10: Er danske værdier bedre end muslimske indvandreres ? et første forsøg 227

HENNING BECH

FJERDE DEL KULTUR SOM AUTENTICITET ELLER TILSLØRING 243

Kapitel 11: Æresrelateret vold som kulturaliserende diskurs? kritik af en udbredt forskningstilgang 245

YVONNE MØRCK, SOFIE DANNESKIOLD-SAMSØE OG BO WAGNER SØRENSEN

Kapitel 12: Eventyret om Vollsmose og den multikulturelle illusion 273

HELLE LYKKE NIELSEN

Kapitel 13: Yahya Hassans brøde 299

MEHMET ÜMIT NECEF

https://samfundslitteratur.dk/bog/multikulturalismens-f%C3%A6lder

Padovan-Özdemir, Marta. The Making of Educationally Manageable Immigrant Schoolchildren in Denmark,1970–2013A Critical Prism for Studying the Fabrication of a Danish Welfare Nation State. (2016) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Padovan-Özdemir, Marta. The Making of Educationally Manageable Immigrant Schoolchildren in Denmark,1970–2013A Critical Prism for Studying the Fabrication of a Danish Welfare Nation State. Dissertation. University of Copenhagen, 2016,

Ever since children of non-Western labour immigrants appeared in Danish public schools in the early 1970s, immigrant schoolchildren have attracted considerable educational attention from politicians, administrators, teachers, experts, and researchers.  This  attention  has  often  been  voiced  as  a  concern  for  these children’s  individual  welfare,  but  also  for  the collective welfare of Danish society.  With the objective of unravelling this educational attention, the thesis asks how were immigrant schoolchildren made  educationally  manageable  in  Danish  public  schools  between  1970  and  2013.  To  offer  a  critical  exploration  of these high-stakes educational  practices addressing immigrant schoolchildren and their families, the thesis also inquires how these practices of educationalised governing have fed into fabricating a post-1970 Danish welfare nation state. The thesis explores these research questions from a critical, historical perspective on three distinct educational practices  used  to  capture  the  manifold  investments  present  in  making  immigrant  schoolchildren  educationally manageable.  First,  it  describes  administrative  knowledge  practices  in  which  administrators,  experts,  and  professionals have been involved in identifying the problem of and suggesting solutions for organising  the welfare and the schooling of  immigrant  schoolchildren.  Second,  it  studies  teacher  professionalisation  practices  whereby  teachers,  experts,  and researchers  have  been  involved  in  identifying  educational  problematisations  of  immigrant  schoolchildren’s presence, based on which professional capacities, dispositions, and identities have been developed over time. Third, it examines didactical  practices  in  which  teachers,  experts,  researchers,  textbook  writers,  journalists,  publishing  houses, nongovernmental  organisations,  and  so  forth  have  been  involved  in  developing  pedagogical  repertoires  of  truths, techniques, and objectives for teachers to manage immigrant schoolchildren’s presence. These  three  educational  practices  have  been  investigated  through  their  textual  effects  in  the  shape  of commission  reports,  project  evaluations,  administrative  procedures,  professional  journal  articles,  teacher  handbooks, teacher  guidelines,  and  so  forth.  Three  corpora  of  historical  material  have  been  established  based  on  the  personal research  archive  of  the  late  education  researcher  Jørgen  Gimbel.  This  trove  is  supplemented  with  the  personal,  work-related  archives  of  other  professionals  who  have  been  active  in  the  investigational  field,  annual  reports  of  the  Danish Royal  School  of  Education  (1970–2000),  three  professional  journals  that  were  specialised  in  the  field  of  immigrant schoolchildren’s education (1980–2013),  and  a  comprehensive  public  library  search.  The  three  corpora  comprise  872 texts  exhibiting  the  qualities  of  regulating,  reflecting,  and  guiding  educational  practices  addressing  immigrant schoolchildren’s presence in Danish public schools between 1970 and 2013.The  thesis constructs educational  practices vis-à-vis immigrant schoolchildren as a  critical prism for studying the  emergence  of  a  Danish  welfare  nation  state.  Qua  an  analytics  of  governing,  the  emergence  of  a  Danish  welfare nation  state  is  constructed  and  studied  as  the  effect  of  a  variegated  domain  of  practices  engaged  in  the  governing  of individual  and  collective  welfare  as  responses  to  the  social  question  of  integration.  Thus,  this  thesis  cultivates  a profound  questioning  of  problem-solving  complexes  arising  in  response  to  immigrant  schoolchildren’s presence,  as these  problem-solving  complexes  have  been  involved  in  educationalising  the  social  question  of  integration,  and imagining a better society. As  such,  this  thesis  offers  problematisations  of  immigrant  schoolchildren’s  education,  showing  how educationalised  welfare  work  addressing  non-Western  immigrant  children  and  their  families  functioned  not  only  as  a deeply  rooted  national(ist)  project,  but  also  equally  as  a  racialising,  civilising,  modernising  project  of  governing  the social and doing good. Accordingly, the thesis demonstrates how revisiting the social question in a post-1970 context of educating  immigrant  schoolchildren  disturbs  the  optimistic  salvation  project  of  publicly  educating  and  integrating immigrants.  The  thesis  shows  how  a  post-1970  Danish  welfare  nation  state  can  be  understood  as  the  effect  of  an inherently  modernistic  project  of  brutal  care,  subtly  racialised  professionalisation,  and  a  civilising  pedagogy  placing immigrant schoolchildren on the threshold of a thesis of modern Danish life. The thesis has been prepared as a collection of two scientific journal articles and one lengthy contribution to an anthology, in which the thesis’s analytical findings are presented. In addition, it presents a chapter on the development of  a  positive  form  of  critique,  a  thematised  historiography  of  the  cross-disciplinary  research  context  informing  this thesis,  a  brief  reflection  upon  concepts  lost  and  found  in  translation,  an  extended  discussion  on  the  writing  of  history and  the methodological implications of an analytics of governing, and a final chapter discussing the thesis’s overall contribution to its research context.

PDF: https://curis.ku.dk/ws/files/169757836/Ph.d._afhandling_2016_Padovan_zdemir.pdf.

Padovan-Özdemir, Marta, and Bolette Moldenhawer. ‘Making Precarious Immigrant Families and Weaving the Danish Welfare Nation-State Fabric 1970–2010’. (2017) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Padovan-Özdemir, Marta, and Bolette Moldenhawer. ‘Making Precarious Immigrant Families and Weaving the Danish Welfare Nation-State Fabric 1970–2010’. Race, Ethnicity and Education, vol. 20, no. 6, Routledge, 2017, pp. 723–736.

This article explores the making of immigrant families as precarious elements in the governing of the population’s welfare within the Danish welfare nation- state since the 1970s. The emphasis is on how immigrant families became a problem of welfare governing, and what knowledge practices and welfare techniques emerged as problem-solving responses. The article analyses a diverse set of national and local administrative documents advancing a polyhedron of intelligibility by which the authors discover how problem- solving complexes responsive to immigrant families change and sediment, and ultimately, weave the fabric of a Danish welfare nation-state faced with non-Western immigration after the economic boom in the late 1960s.

doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2016.1195358.

PDF: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13613324.2016.1195358?needAccess=true

Pedersen, Linda Lund. ‘Kønsforskel Og Neutralitet – Danske Tørklædedebatter Set Gennem Luce Irigarays Teori om Kønsforskel Og Den Anden’. (2008) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Pedersen, Linda Lund. ‘Kønsforskel Og Neutralitet – Danske Tørklædedebatter Set Gennem Luce Irigarays Teoriom Kønsforskel Og Den Anden’. Kvinder, Køn & Forskning, no. 4, 4, Dec. 2008.

This article adopts a philosophical approach to Danish media and parliamentary debates on Muslim headscarves. Through the use of Luce Irigaray’s theories on sexual difference it suggests a new perspective. It argues that the debates have generally failed to recognize the other (i.e. the Muslim veiled woman) as the other. Ultimately this is due to dominant (white, Christian) culture being unable to accept and understand difference – in particular sexual difference as its foundation. In the meeting with the other, the other is reduced to the same.

doi:10.7146/kkf.v0i4.27944.

PDF: https://tidsskrift.dk/KKF/article/view/27944.      

Perry, Kevin. Framing Trust at the Street Level. (2012) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Perry, Kevin. Framing Trust at the Street Level. Dissertation. Roskilde University, 2012.

This thesis deals with the phenomenon of distrust and trust between young men with minority ethnic backgrounds and public sector employees at the face-to-face level of interaction. The focus is on trust and distrust which can be understood as cultural resources – a valuable approach to researching trust and distrust largely under-represented in the trust literature. A common source of conflict is often a lack of confidence or distrust in the authorities; therefore, winning the confidence of minority ethnic groups in these communities is essential to easing tensions, along with reducing civil unrest, antisocial behaviour, crime and unnecessary public spending. The purpose of this in-depth study, based on nine months of ethnographic fieldwork in and around two residential housing estates, is to contribute towards understanding the micro-processes at play in distrust and trust building processes between public sector employees and young men with minority ethnic backgrounds, an under-researched and often misunderstood area. The central focus is on the relationship between the young men with minority ethnic backgrounds, a team of youth workers, a job consultant and a police officer. This study explores the relationships from the perspectives of some of the young men and the aforementioned professionals, thus exploring the relationship from both sides of the coin. The thesis draws primarily on data gathered during fieldwork i.e. in-depth and ethnographic interviews, observations and artefacts such as media and local authority reports. In addition to the empirical material, the study explores a key governmental policy to investigate how the (previous) government names and frames people with minority ethnic backgrounds. Analysing this policy helps to locate the fieldwork and interactants into the wider cultural and structural context, while at the same time, contributes towards explaining why some local authority actors use certain frames and not others when talking about the young men with minority ethnic backgrounds. A number of research questions have guided the process which revolves around the experiences of the young men with minority ethnic backgrounds and the aforementioned professionals. The problem formulation is: How can trust (and distrust) be understood as a cultural resource and what are the implications for public sector employees who work with young men with minority ethnic backgrounds in the community?

PDF: https://rucforsk.ruc.dk/ws/files/38396769/KEVINPERRYTHESISFINALDRAFTSECURECOPY_May_2012.pdf.

Rostbøll, Christian F. ‘The Use and Abuse of “Universal Values” in the Danish Cartoon Controversy’.

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Rostbøll, Christian F. ‘The Use and Abuse of “Universal Values” in the Danish Cartoon Controversy’. European Political Science Review, vol. 2, no. 3, Nov. 2010, pp. 401–422.

During the Danish cartoon controversy, appeals to universal liberal values were often made in ways that marginalized Muslims. An analysis of the controversy reveals that referring to ‘universal values’ can be exclusionary when dominant actors fail to distinguish their own culture’s embodiment of these values from the more abstract ideas. The article suggests that the solution to this problem is not to discard liberal principles but rather to see them in a more deliberative democratic way. This means that we should move from focusing on citizens merely as subjects of law and right holders to seeing them as co-authors of shared legal and moral norms. A main shortcoming of the way in which dominant actors in Denmark responded to the cartoons was exactly that they failed to see the Muslim minority as capable of participating in interpreting and giving shared norms. To avoid self-contradiction, liberal principles and constitutional norms should not be seen as incontestable aspects of democracy but rather as subject to recursive democratic justification and revision by everyone subject to them. Newcomers ought to be able to contribute their specific perspectives in this process of democratically reinterpreting and perfecting the understanding of universalistic norms, and thereby make them fit better to those to whom they apply, as well as rendering them theirs.

doi:10.1017/S175577391000024X.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S175577391000024X/type/journal_article.

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

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

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.

Fernandez, Nadine T. ‘Moral Boundaries and National Borders: Cuban Marriage Migration to Denmark’. (2013)

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Fernandez, Nadine T. ‘Moral Boundaries and National Borders: Cuban Marriage Migration to Denmark’. Identities, vol. 20, no. 3, Routledge, June 2013, pp. 270–287.

The discussion of marriage migration in Denmark primarily has focused on citizens of immigrant descent (‘New Danes’) who marry partners from their ancestral homeland (often Turkey or Pakistan). This type of marriage migration was the target of the strict Danish family reunification policy instituted in 2002. This article examines the genealogy of the morality underpinning the family reunification policies and asks whether the rules actually promote this moral agenda or have unintended consequences. Empirically, I shift the focus from immigrant Danes to native Danes who marry Cubans. Finally, while little attention is paid to the non-western country involved, transnational marriages always involve two nations. This article investigates how state policies on both ends of this migration trajectory shape moral-territorial borders that transnational couples navigate.

doi:10.1080/1070289X.2013.806266.

https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.2013.806266.

Rytter, Mikkel. ‘“The Family of Denmark” and “the Aliens”: Kinship Images in Danish Integration Politics’. (2010)

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Rytter, Mikkel. ‘“The Family of Denmark” and “the Aliens”: Kinship Images in Danish Integration Politics’. Ethnos, vol. 75, no. 3, Routledge, Sept. 2010, pp. 301–322.

Applying insights from newer anthropological kinship studies, this article suggests that the current Danish immigration regime is based on and legitimized by a certain kind of ‘kinship images’ that are used and reproduced in Danish public and political discourses. Since 2002, every Danish citizen applying for family reunification with foreign spouses has been met with a ‘requirement of national attachment’, which basically distinguishes within the pool of citizens between the ‘real’ and the ‘not-quite-real’ Danes. The article discusses the possibilities of ‘integration’ in the current situation where Danish legislation and public discourses tend to distinguish between Danish citizens on the basis of their family history and national attachment. The article furthermore discusses different strategies of ‘kinning’ through which the ‘not-quite-real’ can aspire to become ‘real’ Danes.

doi:10.1080/00141844.2010.513773.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2010.513773.

Rytter, Mikkel. ‘Writing Against Integration: Danish Imaginaries of Culture, Race and Belonging’. (2018) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

Rytter, Mikkel. ‘Writing Against Integration: Danish Imaginaries of Culture, Race and Belonging’. Ethnos, vol. 84, no. 4, Apr. 2018, pp. 678–697.

The article addresses some of the problems related to the concept of integration, which has been used (and abused) in Denmark since the 1990s to discuss socio-economic, cultural and religious challenges related to the everyday life of ethnic minorities. The concept of integration is not innocent but promotes both a specific conceptualisation of Danish society and a problematisation of immigrant minorities and their relationship to the indigenous majority. Based on the ethnographic studies conducted in Denmark in recent decades, the article attempts to disentangle the dominant social imaginary by outlining three scenarios: ‘welfare reciprocity’, ‘host and guests’ and ‘the Danes as an indigenous people’. These scenarios consolidate an asymmetrical relationship between majorities and minorities because they simultaneously cast integration as desirable and impossible. Finally, inspired by Lila Abu-Lughod’s seminal article ‘writing against culture’, the article suggests strategies of ‘writing against integration’ in order to regain the critical potential of academic analysis.

doi:10.1080/00141844.2018.1458745.

PDF: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324526635_Writing_Against_Integration_Danish_Imaginaries_of_Culture_Race_and_Belonging.