Is there Something Rotten in the State of Denmark? A WPR Analysis of Immigration and Integration Policies in Denmark

Abstract: In 2015, Denmark saw a historic number of refugees and asylum seekers, many of whom were of Middle Eastern heritage, reach its borders,. As a response to this, the Danish government began tightening its immigration and integration policies, and restricting entry to the country. Many of these restrictions have been criticized both domestically and internationally. This thesis analyses four Danish immigration and integration policies, which were created after the 2015 influx of refugees, by using Carol Bacchi’s What’s the problem represented to be approach. The aim of the thesis is to investigate how refugees and asylum seekers are problematized in these policies, and to investigate whether this problematization is racist. The findings show that the aforementioned policies construct an imagery of refugees and asylum seekers as a cultural threat, an economic threat and a danger to the Danish society. Furthermore, the analysis shows that a silencing of the agency of the refugees and asylum seekers gives power to the government to enforce legislation which challenges European conventions, based on an imagery of the refugees as a threat to Danish society.This thesis then argues that this imagery is inherently motivated by structural and cultural racism.