The new Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen's minority government relies on support of a social-liberal and two rather left-leaning parties. The most important disagreement between the Social Democrats and their partners is on migration policy. A potential conflict, that could make the minority government difficult to steer through challenging times.
Inspired by Jodi Dean's understanding of the reflective solidarity of strangers, this contribution explores forms of migrant solidarity and resistance in Copenhagen and Berlin. It investigates how 'hybrid' forms of solidarity emerged out of different circumstances in Trampoline House and the Oranienplatz refugee protest camp. The two selected cases are particularly interesting for exploring how models of contentious and non-contentious civil society mobilisation and engagement cope with inequalities, disagreement and differences; how awareness of inequalities affects relations of solidarity between refugees and local activists as well as between groups of refugees. The analysis suggests that despite the substantial differences between the two cases, the groups involved in the research experienced similar challenges in overcoming inequalities and diversity. Arguably, the tensions and disagreements within groups can potentially develop into forms of reflective solidarity, aimed at reshaping the boundaries created by differences of race, class, ethnicity and gender.
The debate over male circumcision is symptomatic of the developments in Danish politics as a result of cohabitation with the radical right over the last two decades
We are witnessing cumulative processes of politicization – struggles and organization involving migrant workers and activists setting out to build awareness locally, and link up globally.
In the academic literature there seems to be consensus on irregular migration being a marginal phenomenon in the Scandinavian countries. The reason for this is found in the highly regulated labour markets and strict control migration regimes both internally and externally. The article addresses the 'myth' of the non-presence of irregular migration in Scandinavia. Firstly, we look at how irregular migration is framed academically; secondly, we analyze how irregular migration is conceptualized more broadly in the three countries, looking at the different political strategies relating to this conceptualization such as normalization, regularization and criminalization.
