Welcome to the migration seminar!

What happens when exceptional migration measures become embedded as ordinary democratic governance? Denmark as Europe’s laboratory.

Speaker

Michelle Pace, Professor, independent researcher, and Associate Researcher (non-residential) at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship & Globalisation, Deakin University, Australia

Abstract

Drawing on more than a decade of research (2014–2025), this presentation examines how Denmark has progressively transformed temporary and exceptional migration measures into ordinary instruments of democratic governance. Building on the arguments developed in Un-welcome to Denmark: The Paradigm Shift and Refugee Integration (Manchester University Press, 2025), I introduce the concept of the unwanted migrant to explain how legal, administrative, and political practices collectively produce precarious forms of protection and belonging. Focusing on the 2019 "Paradigm Shift" and the restructuring of the Danish Aliens Act, I argue that refugee protection has been fundamentally reconfigured around temporariness, deterrence, and return rather than integration. These changes extend beyond refugees themselves. They also reshape the work of welfare professionals, civil society organisations, and employers who increasingly navigate tensions between restrictive migration governance and Denmark's demographic and labour market needs. Recent developments, including the further tightening of migration and citizenship policies, reinforce rather than depart from this trajectory. Denmark therefore offers more than a national case study. It provides a lens through which to examine how exclusionary migration governance becomes institutionalised within liberal democracies, raising broader questions about refugee protection, citizenship, and democratic legitimacy across Europe.

Short bio

Michelle Pace, PhD, is a Professor, independent researcher, and Associate Researcher (non-residential) at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship & Globalisation, Deakin University, Australia. She is also Affiliate Professor at the University of Malta and an Affiliate Member of the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health at King’s College London. In Sweden, she serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University. An interdisciplinary scholar, her research examines European-MENA relations, migration, displacement, conflict, inequality, emotions in international relations and the politics of belonging. She has led and contributed to major internationally funded research projects and is the author of Un-welcome to Denmark: The Paradigm Shift and Refugee Integration (Manchester University Press, 2025).

Attendance

This is a hybrid seminar, you are welcome to connect via Zoom or join us at MIM seminar room, floor 9, Niagara, Nordenskiöldsgatan 1. To attend on campus, please gather by the reception area at 13.05.

If you have any questions, send an email to mim@mau.se.

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A link will be available closer to the seminar date.

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