Racism in Danish Welfare Work with Refugees : Troubled by Difference, Docility and Dignity

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.

Author: Marta Padovan-Özdemir, Trine Øland

Publisher: Routledge

Publication Date: Jan 29, 2024

Number of Pages: NA pages

Language: English

Binding: Paperback

ISBN-10: 0367563355

ISBN-13: 9780367563356