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The image of Bosnian war refugees in the Danish public

This article discusses sociological inve¬stigations of attitudes towards immi¬grants and refugees in Denmark. In¬stead of viewing attitudes as an attribu¬te of individual psychology or as deter¬mined by social class, the article sug¬gests examining the context of varying understandings and imaginations which set the frame for the meaningful presentation of a concrete event.
This approach is exemplified by a study of the reception of refugees from the former Yugoslavia in Denmark ba¬sed on articles from the Danish press from May 1992 to January 1995. These articles indicate that different attitudes towards refugees can be connected to representations based on different nar¬rative imaginations and collective me¬mories as well as other themes of cur¬rent interest in the public. These con¬texts have set different meaningful fra¬mes for understanding refugees and thereby influenced attitudes towards this group in the Danish public.
In summer 1992, before the arrival of larger groups of refugees, there was a positive attitude towards them in the press. There was general indignation to¬wards the war in Europe and a wide¬spread willingness to help the people suffering from ethnic persecution and cleansing. There were explicit referen¬ces to World War II which were unambi¬guously supportive of a positive attitu¬de toward these refugees.
By the autumn of the same year the¬re was a drift towards a more negative attitude. Episodes of thefts in the regi¬ons where refugee centres were located resulted in demands that criminal refu¬gees from the former Eastern Europe (the Baltic and exYugoslavia) be expel¬led. There were also reports from Ger¬many that neoNazis set fire to refugee camps, and this produced concern that the many foreigners in Denmark would provoke "German conditions" with eth¬nic and racist problems. Many Danish neighbours to these refugee centres we¬re surprised to see refugees from war torn Yugoslavia arriving wellfed and in new clothing. These refugees didn't fit the image of suffering which had been the basis for the unambiguous support the preceding summer. These people didn't appear to be "real" refugees.
The many media reports about the war in Bosnia helped create an understanding that refugees have a reason for being Denmark and that Denmark has an obligation to help. The referen¬ces to ethnic persecution during World War II have been superseded by an un¬der¬standing that the new refugees have es¬caped from a life that was similar to the Danish. "They are like us" is a sen¬tence that becomes more common in the media, and an understanding that the Bos¬nian war refugees have been forced to leave a life style similar to the Danish one emerge "it could have been us". This is the basis for development of a public understanding of the Bosnian re¬fugees as a new type of "real" refugees.
The positive attitudes that have de¬veloped towards the predominantly Muslim refugees from Bosnia point to the possibility that the widespread anta¬gonism in the Danish public towards immigrants with a Muslim background is not due to the religion itself, but rather the traditionalistic and nonmodern way of life that this religious affiliation symbolizes for many Danes.

I humanitær diskurs og praksis må en flygtning være et uskyldigt og hjælpeløst offer for at kunne retfærdiggøre hjælpeindsatsen. Sådanne forestillinger er stærkt kønnede og kommer til udtryk i daglige praksisser i flygtningelejre. Men hvad gør man, når flygtningene ikke vil opføre sig som ofre?

'I have so much respect for the women of Africa'. The quotation is taken from a report in the Danish magazine Too dameme in 2011 here follows is the Danish singer Maria Montell, who are visiting the village Kanziko in Kenya, where a Danish water project just so set. The reader is invited to Montell fashion with Kenyans whose life terms shall put her own life back home in Denmark in perspective. The Africans touches Montell deeply and reinforces her that would help (Say 2011: 45). Adapted from the source document.

Artikkelen følger en devised teaterproduksjon for barn som tar utgangspunkt i en bildebok av Lisa Aisato, En fisk til Luna (2014). I produksjonens forprosjekt benyttes en referansegruppe fra en barnehage bestående av ti barn i alderen 3-6 år. Artikkelen undersøker hvordan samspillet mellom barn og kunstnere i en slik forestillingsprosess kan bidra til forståelse av barns språklige strategier i møte mellom to karakterer som ikke deler samme språk. Vi finner at barnas innspill inkluderer både flerspråklig verbal og non-verbal kommunikasjon. Barnas språklige strategier blir delt inn i fem hovedgrupper bestående av herming, utprøving av ulike ord, forsøk på å snakke et annet språk, forsøk på å lære den andres språk og på å vise hva man mener, i stedet for å benytte verbalspråk. Barnegruppen samlet sett fremmer, slik vi tolker det, transspråklige perspektiver for kommunikasjon. Artikkelen undersøker også hvordan barnas språklige strategier påvirker utviklingen av forestillingen. Her finner vi at barnas forslag påvirker forestillingen på flere nivå; både utviklingen av forestillingens narrativ, det sceniske uttrykket, samt selve forståelsen av det sceniske konseptet.

Mens Saids Orientalism selv er en kritisk meta-studie af "vestlige forestillinger om Orienten", har denne artikel til formål at problematisere og nuancere en fremherskende forestilling vedrørende dette værks indflydelse på studiet af Mellemøsten, nemlig at det skulle være svært at overdrive indflydelsen fra Orientalism på Mellemøststudierne (MØS), som nærmest skulle være blevet transformeret af den said'ianske Orientalism-kritik. Artiklens overordnede argument om Edward W. Said og Orientalism's ikke helt så store indflydelse på studiet af Mellemøsten udvikles i tre skridt, hvor det første har til formål at vise, hvordan det snarere er uden for studiet af Mellemøsten, at Saids indflydelse har været størst. Et af de akademiske felter, hvor Said nærmest har været ignoreret, er derimod orientalistikken, som ellers tildeles størstedelen af bogens opmærksomhed. Hvad MØS angår, er det ganske vist muligt at spore en påvirkning fra Orientalism. Den er imidlertid ikke blot mindre end ofte hævdet, men varierer også betragteligt i både karakter og omfang. Det andet skridt har derfor til formål at identificere karakteren af den said'ianske indflydelse, der viser sig at være ganske kompleks og tvetydig. Det kan således være relevant at sondre mellem indflydelsen fra den said'ianske kritik af MØS og fra kritikken af de said-ianske MØS. Endvidere varierer omfanget af denne indflydelse inden for forskellige dele af MØS. Det tredje skridt består derfor af en sammenligning af den said'ianske påvirkning blandt mellemøstforskere med forskellig disciplinær baggrund og inden for forskellige kultur-institutionelle kontekster.

ENGELSK ABSTRACT:
Morten Valbjørn: Conceptions about Edward Said and Orientalism's (Less) Profound Impact on the Study of the Middle East

While Edward Said's Orientalism is a study of "Western conceptions of the Orient", the purpose of this article is to question one of the prevalent conceptions concerning Said's influence on the study of the Middle East. This article examines the claim that it is hard to exaggerate the impact from Said on the field of Middle East Studies (MES), which is supposed to have been almost transformed by his Orientalism critique. The article concludes that this claim is much of an exaggeration itself. The impact of Orientalism appears more profound in academic fields which are not particularly concerned with the Middle East, and its influence within the study of the Middle East appears rather ambiguous. Thus, it is necessary not only to make a distinction between the impact of the Said'ian critique of MES and of the critique of the Said'ian MES, but also to distinguish between the uneven influence of Said among Middle East scholars with different disciplinary training and from different cultural-institutional contexts.

Key words: Edward Said, Orientalism, Middle East, Middle East Studies, sociology of knowledge, European vs. American academia.