Area 2
The reception of immigrants, the politics of integration and acculturation, conditions for citizenship, and political participation.

AMID Research Projects within Area 2:

Post.Doc. Project
Responsible for project: David May

Immigrants’ Participation in Civil Society (Area 2)
The main idea of this project is to analyze the participation of immigrants in civil society and the impact of this participation on their life trajectories. The institutions of civil society form an important part of various kinds of networks, such as professional networks, circles of acquaintance, etc., and therefore allow immigrants to gain access to these networks. At the same time, participation in civil society opens the possibility for immigrants to take part in the general reproduction of society. The interaction of immigrants and natives in institutions of civil society allows for two outcomes: On the one hand, it opens up new perspectives and paths of entry to the new society, e.g. through access to informal help by natives, through recognition, and in the long run through influence on the institutions in question. Yet if a society tends to be closed to newcomers, this will manifest itself in the exclusivist practices of its civil society. Because participation in civil society fulfils such a central task, this study aims to contribute toward a better understanding of immigrant life trajectories in Denmark, but also to a general theory of incorporation and adaptation of immigrants through civil society.

PhD Project (October 1, 2001 to October 1, 2004)
Responsible for project: Susi Meret
Responsible faculty: Jørgen Goul Andersen (AAU) and Ulf Hedetoft (AU)

Migration, New Political Cleavages and the Radical Right: A Comparative Analysis of the Danish, Italian and Austrian Case (Area 2)
During the last decades some relevant transformations have characterised the political scene of Western Europe, one of these being the emergence and reinforcement of the radical right in several countries. This event has gained increasing attention within the field of political studies, which is confirmed by the amount of literature now available on this topic. Many of these publications often delineate the features that characterise the radical right parties in Europe and give country-to-country assessments of those parties which are considered belonging to this political family. In others, the inquiry focuses on a single party, assessing the conditions that have determined its appearance on that country’s political scene.

Though enlightening, these approaches lack a deeper comparative perspective that could better attempt to give an answer to some relevant questions. For example: why do these parties emerge in certain geographical and socio-political contexts rather than others? What are their roots in the past? What are the common traits and differences among them? Why is anti-immigration and the hostility towards the idea of a multi-ethnical society one of the most relevant issues in their political agendas? Can we consider them “just” as a result of protest, or do they rather represent the ultimate crisis of traditional parties? Who is the electorate supporting them and what can be the reasons of this support?

In order to tackle these and other questions, the choice for this PhD project has been to build the analysis on a three-country comparative perspective. This will look at Denmark, Italy and Austria. For each of these countries, it will be then considered a representative political party belonging to the radical right family: namely, the Danish People’s Party (Dansk Folkeparti), the Northern League (Lega Nord) and the Austrian Freedom Party (Freiheitliche Partei Österreich).

The research will be conducted at various levels of analysis, considering both the emergence of a new radical right in relation to the recent socio-economical and cultural transformations experienced by our societies (macro-societal level), as well as the institutional and socio-structural level defined by the three countries’ geographical and socio-political boundaries. Within this framework, particular attention will be paid to the augmenting emphasis that these parties give to the issue of immigration and to their alarmed appeals, which urge to take political action contra the menace that a multi-ethnical society represents for Western national (sometimes even regional) identities and values.

The material used to accomplish this research will be heterogeneous: parties’ publications (manifestos, newspapers, journals, pamphlets, etc.) and significant theoretical production will be considered. Emphasis will also be given to the use of empirical data already at hand (election data, election surveys, international social surveys) and particularly to those data that privilege a cross-national, cross-cultural perspective, so enhancing the comparative approach that mainly characterises this project.

Senior Project
Responsible for project: Flemming Mikkelsen

The Political Mobilization of Ethnic Minorities in Denmark, - Seen in an International and Transnational Perspective (Area 2 and 5)
The way in which ethnic minorities mobilize politically to safeguard their interests in the struggle and competition for resources, rights and ideals forms the cognitive basis for the present project. Against the background of an extensive empirical registration of ethnic minorities’ formal and informal organizations and movements it should be possible to shed light on some central conditions for the mobilization of the ethnic minorities in Denmark from the middle sixties to the present day.The research comprises four analytical concepts: The structure of opportunities internationally, transnationalism, mobilization, and the national political structure of opportunities. Thus, the different concepts refer both to the international and international conditions for political mobilization, to the transnational flow of economic, social and cultural resources, and to the strategies that groups, organizations and movements utilize to strengthen their mobilization and further their interests. The results from Denmark will be compared with similar research in other European countries.

Senior Project
Responsible for project: Lise Togeby

Immigrants’ Citizenship in Denmark (Area 2)
In recent years, Lise Togeby has expanded her research areas to include studies of the immigrants themselves. Interest mainly focusses on issues related to studies of immigrants’ citizenship in Denmark in terms of their involvement in politics and society. Togeby is currently involved in four minor projects in the area, e.g. a collaborative project with three other senior researchers and in cooperation with the Copenhagen and Aarhus municipalities analyzing voter turnout in the 1997 local elections. The data presents a unique opportunity to investigate political participation by ethnic minorities in Denmark. Supplementary to this, Togeby has started to map how ethnic minorities organize in Aarhus and Copenhagen. This project proposes to study the conditions for Greenlanders living in Denmark in extension of this broader and ongoing investigation of ethnic minorities’citizenship in Denmark. The study will include economic and social integration into Danish society as well as the extent to which Greenlanders are involved in decisions that affect their living conditions.