The Disparate Effects of Legal Violence: Access to Family Reunification for Refugees in Denmark

Abstract: This thesis is a case study on the family reunification procedure for refugees in Denmark, in the context of an increasingly restrictive environment. It sought to find out how structural facets of Danish immigration law interact with and influence the practices of navigating a family reunification process, for people with a refugee background. Two phases of semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to understand the socio-legal terrain and the possibilities for navigating the field. The respondents in the first phase consisted of experts who had perspectives on family reunification, mostly in relation to refugees. The respondents in the second phase consisted of individuals with a refugee background, who had undergone a family reunification procedure within the last three years. The theoretical framework was comprised of Bourdieu’s fundamental theories on society, and his conceptualization of law and symbolic violence, which anchored the analysis at the level of social practices. Moreover, the extension of the theory as offered by Menjívar & Abrego’s term legal violence was added for its applicability to immigration law. The analysis found that within an already restrictive legal environment, those with a refugee background are disparately impacted through several challenging mechanisms of the family reunification procedure. Simultaneously, symbolic power and capital also play a considerable role in enhancing access, and underline the pervasive arbitrariness in navigating this process. Employing the concept of legal violence enabled critically examining those systemic constraints with wide-reaching consequences that ultimately influence refugees’ access to justice.