Unwelcome to Denmark: The Paradigm Shift and Refugee Integration
Professor Michelle Pace (Roskilde University)
Wednesday, 21 January 2026, 5pm to 6pm
This is an online Zoom event. Registration will open in January 2026.
RSC Public Seminar Series, Hilary Term 2026
Series convened by Professor Tom Scott-Smith and Professor Catherine Briddick
About this talk
Un-welcome to Denmark: The Paradigm Shift and Refugee Integration examines how Denmark’s increasingly restrictive migration policies have reshaped the lived experience of refugees and the country’s approach to integration. The book traces the political and ideological forces behind the so-called “paradigm shift”, exploring how policy, public discourse, and bureaucratic practice have combined to create a system that often prioritises deterrence over inclusion. Through analysis, testimony, and contextual insight, it highlights the social, psychological, and democratic consequences of a regime that has become markedly harsher in recent years and one that serves as a “model” for others to emulate. In this talk, I will offer a critical reflection on what it means to seek refuge in a country that simultaneously promises protection and cultivates un-welcomeness.
About the speaker
Michelle Pace is Professor in Global Studies at the Department of Social Sciences and Business, Roskilde University, Denmark. She is also Associate Fellow, Europe Program at Chatham House, London. A political scientist by training, her interdisciplinary research and teaching focuses on the intersection between European / Middle East / Critical Migration / Democratization and Peace & Conflict Studies. She has been the Danish lead partner on the SIRIUS EU H2020 project (Skills and Integration of Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Applicants in European Labour Markets, 2018-2020), as well as the Principal Investigator on a large FACE (Fund for Academic Cooperation and Exchange between Denmark and the Middle East and North African region, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark) grant project on Syrian refugee minors in Denmark and Lebanon (successfully completed November 2017). In the past, her research has also been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, the Wellcome Trust and the MENASP network in the UK. Her book Un-welcome to Denmark. The paradigm shift and refugee integration (with Sarah El-Abd) received a Carlsberg Monograph Fellowship in 2021.
All enquiries should be directed to rsc-outreach@qeh.ox.ac.uk