Immigrant Inclusion and Municipalism in a Danish Context

Main Article Content

Mashudu Salifu
Martin Bak Jørgensen

Abstract

This paper explores municipalism in a Danish context. The notion of municipalism has over the last decade gained both renewed academic traction and developed as a political practice, especially in a Southern European context. Within this framework, municipalities have sought to develop alternative policy frameworks targeting societal challenges such as climate change, sustainability, diversity and also immigrant inclusion and integration. These pathways to inclusion frequently challenge the often restrictive national policy frameworks. However, current investigations of municipalism also argue that we have seen the peak of this kind of framework and identify less room for manoeuvre on the local level in terms of developing approaches different to the national ones. This paper asks if we can identify municipalism in a Danish context, what may have shaped such relations, and discusses its potential and limitations. It draws on interviews with politicians and civil servants in three larger Danish cities.

Article Details

Section
Articles (refereed)
Author Biographies

Mashudu Salifu, Aalborg University, Denmark

Mashudu Salifu is a PhD student at the Department of Culture and Learning, Aalborg University, Denmark. He holds two master’s degrees: an MA in Culture, Communication, and Globalisation with a specialisation in Global Politics, Migration, and Movement; an MSc in Development and International Relations awarded by Aalborg University, Denmark; and a BA in Political Science with Philosophy awarded by the University of Ghana, Legon. He is a member of DEMOS and attached to the project Enacting Citizenship and Solidarity in Europe "From Below": Local Initiatives, Intersectional Strategies, and Transnational Networks [ECSEuro]. His research interests include global mobility decisions, the COVID-19 pandemic, urban sanctuary, democracy, migration, and integration.

Martin Bak Jørgensen, Aalborg University, Denmark

Martin Bak Jørgensen is Professor in Processes of Migration at DEMOS at the Department for Culture and Learning, Aalborg University, Denmark. He works within the fields of political ethnography, social theory and political geography. Currently he is co-PI of the Volkswagen Stiftung financed project ECSEuro - Enacting Citizenship and Solidarity in Europe “From Below“: Local Initiatives, Intersectional Strategies, and Transnational Networks. He is member of the editorial board of Comparative Migration Studies. He has published the book Solidarity and the “Refugee Crisis” in Europe (Palgrave, 2019), co-authored with Óscar García Agustín.