Between integration and repatriation - frontline experiences of how conflicting immigrant integration policies hamper the integration of young refugees in Denmark

Bibliographic Data

ID3628883
AuthorsK Vitus (0000-0003-1102-2742, Aalborg University, corresponding author), Frederikke Jarlby (0000-0003-4124-037X, NORCE Research AS)
Year2022
Volume48
Issue7
Pages1496-1514
Publication date2022-05-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183x.2021.1873112
OpenAlexW3123852432
LanguageEN
Citations received20
References cited36

Confronted with global migration pressures, European countries face the dual challenges of border control and the incorporation of immigrants into society. Danish immigration and integration policies aim to restrict the influx of refugees and to develop newcomers’ sense of civic responsibility. We analyse 2017 policy problematisations and local integration policy workers’ experiences with integrating young, newly arrived refugees under the mandatory municipal integration programme. We find that these policies lead to paradoxical effects when integration goals interact with immigration laws that create precarious temporary living conditions. Moreover, when integration is problematised as an exclusive problem of refugees’ employability and prompt economic self-sufficiency. The policy problematisations neglect the needs of young refugees by overlooking critical aspects of social and cultural integration and obscuring the possibilities for individually tailored services, which, from frontline integration workers’ perspective, are necessary to realise young refugees’ integration

Demographic economics · Economics · Immigration · Political science · Refugee · Repatriation · Sociology · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration