Racism in Danish welfare work with refugees: Troubled by difference, docility and dignity

Marta Padovan-Özdemir, Trine Øland

Research output: Book/ReportBookResearchpeer-review

Abstract

This book explores contemporary Danish relations of colonial complicity in welfare work with newly arrived refugees (1978-2016) as recursive histories that reveal new shapes and shades of racism.

Focussing on super- and subordination in helping relations of postcoloniality, the book displays the durability of coloniality and the workings of raceless racism in welfare work with refugees. Its main contribution is the excavation of stock stories of colour-blindness, potentialising and compassion, which help welfare workers invest in burying that which keeps haunting welfare work with refugees, i.e., modern ghosts of difference, docility and dignity.

The book dismantles the global myth of the Danish benevolent, universalistic welfare state and it is of interest to every scholar and student, who wants to make inquiries about Danish exceptionalism and the hidden interaction between past and present, the visible and invisible in Danish welfare work with refugees.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherRoutledge
Number of pages182
ISBN (Print)9780367563332
ISBN (Electronic)9781003097327
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022
SeriesRoutledge Research in Race and Ethnicity
Number43

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