Un-Welcome Denmark: The Paradigm Shift and Refugee Integration

In Un-Welcome Denmark, Michelle Pace, with Sarah El-Abd, offers a timely and compelling analysis of the transformation of Denmark’s asylum system from one of Europe’s most tolerant and open immigration governance systems into one of its most restrictive. At a time when Denmark has inspired other countries—such as the UK and Austria—with its ever-harsher immigration laws and policies, this book provides a significant intervention in debates concerning refugee protection, integration, exclusion, and belonging. Drawing on various mixed-methods projects conducted over the last decade, Pace brings historical, legal, theoretical, and empirical analysis together to shed light on how Denmark has ‘shifted its paradigm’ from an integrationist approach to ‘repatriation and return’ (p. 2), and how this shift has reshaped the lives of refugees and the people who are tasked with supporting them. A major strength of the book is that it not only draws on the lived experiences of those refugees directly influenced by Denmark’s changing immigration regime but also documents the perspectives of welfare professionals and employers who are also compelled to navigate their ways around the ‘maze’, demonstrating the complexity of immigration systems and integration within an increasingly hostile environment.