Chapter 8 - Mobilizing Against Forced Repatriations

Summary

Introduction

Through legislative institutions and procedures, Danish society formally pursues policies to repatriate refugees from Denmark (Vitus and Jarlby, 2021). The state wants them to return to their country of origin. Countries fled due to the fear for their lives. Concretely, Danish political parties and coalitions, in recent years right-wing coalitions supported by public opinion against refugees, have introduced policies for repatriation targeting refugees. Additional policies also facilitate programs in which former refugees, who currently might hold residence permits or even Danish citizenship, could also qualify for repatriation if they voluntarily wish to return home. Diverse bureaucratic structures, as well as civic groups and NGOs advocating for refugee rights, play an intermediate role in the process, complicating the implementation of such restrictive policies. The bureaucracy specifies and implements policies, while civic groups and NGOs criticize or directly fight against such policies. Certain civic groups also mobilize and empower refugee-migrant communities in resisting policies, thereby overcoming the immediate and expected long-term challenges of some of the particularly ratified policies.

However, although the stated legal and political dimensions of repatriation policies remain central, how the targeted communities respond formally and informally to such processes also influences the eventual outcome. In particular, the dilemma communities confront includes their prevailing ambivalent connections to both host and homeland environments. Most community members want to periodically return and connect to their homelands, but obviously on their own terms. At the same time, many of them did not aim to abandon Denmark. Therefore, for most of them, it is not a question of either or nor, as many have invested in belonging to both societies and thereby establishing roots and ties. Among the scholars studying such uncertainties, Kibreab describes transnational ambivalence as follows:

In the regions where refugees are able to enjoy rights of citizenship with definite prospects for becoming citizens (through naturalization) or denizens through acquisition of permanent status and where favorable structural factors enable them to enjoy a decent standard of living, they tend to remain in countries of asylum, regardless of whether or not the conditions that prompt their displacement are eliminated. They are also able to maintain dense links with their places and communities of origin because revolutionary advances in information technology and transportation have dramatically reduced geographical obstacles between places.