Denmark and the Politics of Racializing and Policing Migration

Kiara Walker

Project Description

This paper focuses on migrant integration policies in Denmark, specifically the Ghetto Plan (2018), or recently renamed Parallel Societies (2021). I will use this plan as a lens to interrogate the imperial history of Denmark in order to understand how this history has informed the relationship that the Danish state has towards racialized migrants today and how migrant integration policies rely on colonial tactics of detention, catorgorization and education to police racialized immigrants and their descendants in Denmark.

What Form will your Final Project Take?

I strongly hope so but I have not taken the steps to do so yet.

Who was supporting you in your work?

Jonathan Bach. I regularly have my Senior Thesis Seminar course on Wednesdays with Professor Bach.

Project Themes:

Research, Social Justice

How has this project has been impactful or transformative?

Having the opportunity to spend two weeks in Denmark has helped my research tremendously and allowed me to use my experiences of visiting museums, conducting interviews, and exploring neighborhoods as additive information that has allowed me to feel more connected to and informed on my work.

What would you do differently?

Honestly, I would spend at least three weeks in Copenhagen rather than just two! While two weeks was a perfect time right before homesickness starts to kick in, there were a lot more things I was starting to learn about in relation to my topic that would've helped my research a bit more in my last days there.

Short summary of your experience:

In January 2023, I visited Copenhagen, Denmark for two weeks to learn more about Danish history, culture, and identity in order to help me make sense of what White 'Danishness' represents in opposition to the Migrant or racialized "other". During this time I visited various museums, and cultural landmarks, conducted informational interveiws, and visited neighborhoods that were most recently, labeled as ghettos by the Danish government.

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