Immigration and Immigrant Integration Policy
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Abstract
Danish immigration and immigrant integration policy has changed dramatically over the past forty to 50 years, from occupying one of the most liberal positions in Western Europe in the 1980s to becoming one of the most restrictive in 2019. This policy shift has not least attracted international attention and led commentators to suggest that the Danes must be exceptionally anti-immigrant. This chapter investigates the drivers of policy change. It demonstrates that Danish public opinion may have been a necessary but not a sufficient condition for pushing immigration and immigrant integration policy in a more restrictive direction. Instead, party political dynamics and associated politicization pressures were decisive factors in the development of the policy field. In closing, the chapter considers the potential effects of these policy changes on both majority-minority relations and immigrant integration outcomes in Denmark.