From diversity to conviviality: intra-EU mobility and international migration to Denmark in times of economic recession

ABSTRACT

This article explores differences among EU and non-EU migrants in accommodating to the Danish flexicurity labour and welfare regime during times of economic crisis. We build our findings on a quantitative survey followed by semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with EU and non-EU migrants who moved to Denmark during the recession period (2008–2013). We argue that the lack of multicultural policies triggers individualised strategies of accommodation rather than ethnic or national group base integration, favouring a more homogenous group of high-skilled and educated group of workers and students of postgraduate/higher education, whom we describe as a ‘flexicurity diversity group’. Through patterns of conviviality, individual socialisation is based here on common interests, needs and lifestyles and not on pre-defined ethnic and/or cultural traits. The transition from diversity to conviviality that is initiated by this group remains however incomplete in light of the unequal opportunities and the differentiated scheme of rights that apply to EU and non-EU immigrants. Danish flexicurity has thus not had the desired inclusive effects but discriminates in terms of facilitating easy access to the labour market for all, and ‘securing’ social benefits and offering rights and protection only to the privileged group of EU migrants.

KEYWORDS:

• Multiculturalism
• conviviality
• flexicurity diversity
• crisis migration
• social media

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. See: http://www.oecd.org/berlin/Is-migration-really-increasing.pdf.

2. See: http://www.oecd.org/berlin/Is-migration-really-increasing.pdf.

3. Such as the programme ‘Expats in Denmark’ funded by the Confederation of Danish Industry.

4. See conditions for citizenship application at http://uibm.dk/statsborgerskab/ansogningsskemaer.

5. Note that multiple answers are given for reasons of migration.

6. The same findings are also reported in a huge comparative expats survey by Internations 2014 where Denmark is ranked very low among Western countries in terms of easiness of settlement and being welcomed by the locals.

7. See Sainsbury (2013) for restrictive rights and requirements for Danish citizenship that apply to non-EU citizens living in Denmark.

8. All up to date requirements for residence can be found at http://www.nyidanmark.dk/en-us/ and applying for Danish citizenship at http://www.justitsministeriet.dk/arbejdsområder/statsborgerskab.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the UCPH Excellence Programme for Interdisciplinary Research.