Premium
Made in Denmark: Refugees, integration and the self‐dependent society
Author(s) -
RYTTER MIKKEL
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
anthropology today
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.419
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1467-8322
pISSN - 0268-540X
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8322.12433
Subject(s) - refugee , danish , independence (probability theory) , competition (biology) , state (computer science) , refugee crisis , political science , political economy , sociology , law , ecology , philosophy , statistics , linguistics , mathematics , algorithm , computer science , biology
This article discusses how the values and aspirations of the neo‐liberal competition state (konkurrencestat ) and self‐dependent society ( selvstændighedssamfund ) have affected recently arrived refugees in Denmark. Besides a stricter border regime, the so‐called ‘refugee crisis’ of 2015 also resulted in a new version of ‘integration’ in Denmark that emphasizes the values of responsibility ( ansvar ), self‐sufficiency ( selvforsørgelse ) and independence ( uafhængighed ), as refugees are expected to start working more or less from day one after their arrival. This has led to numerous creative integration programmes in Danish municipalities.