Questioning care: ambiguous relational ethics between a refugee child, her parents and the Danish welfare state

ABSTRACT

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, in this article, I tell the story of a particular Syrian family and their encounter with a day-care institution in Denmark – and by extension with the Danish state. In doing so, I highlight how the initially legitimate worries and genuine care of the institution turned into a form of ‘coercive concern’ (Jaffe-Walter 2016) as the family failed to fully meet the requirements of the Danish educational/ integration regime. I show the problematic transition that occurred in the approach to Aisha as the pedagogues moved from seeing her as a vulnerable refugee in need of care to seeing her as a ‘problem of integration’. Highlighting glimpses of alternative pedagogical approaches, which were co-present though undermined, I argue for the value of relational care as entailing emphatic listening and presence (Noddings 2013). I thus point to the value of doubt and dialogue, rather than a stifled form of certainty through adhering to specific pedagogical mantras vis-à-vis integration policy.

KEYWORDS:

• Refugees
• day care
• state
• family
• care
• ethics

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the families and pedagogical staff who have generously shared their experiences with her. She also wants to thank the following friends and colleagues, whose comments or support have made a great difference to the writing of this article: Nanna Jordt Jørgensen, Kathrin Houmøller, Steffen Jensen, Dalir Barkhoda, Asger Martiny-Bruun, Hanne Ellegaard, Annelise Arent and Vibe Larsen.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on Contributor

Susanne Bregnbæk, Ph.D. is currently an associate professor at University College Copenhagen. Her research has focused on existential anthropology, education, migration, generational differences and social change. Her book Fragile Elite: The Dilemmas of China’s Top University Students was published by Stanford University Press in 2016. Currently, she is working on a research project about refugee children and their families in Denmark.

Notes

1 In order to ensure the anonymity of informants, all names are pseudonyms.

2 The ethnographic material for this article was part of a joint research project ‘The Encounter between Refugee Children, Their Families and Danish Day-care Institutions’ carried out at University College Copenhagen in collaboration with Nanna Jordt Jørgensen, Asger Martiny-Bruun, Annelise Arent and Hanne Ellegaard.

3 Data were stored in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (2018) and confirm to the Danish Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (2014) and the American Anthropological Association’s standards and principles for professional responsibility (2012).

4 According to the current Danish law on integration, passed in 2016, refugees are obliged to start an integration programme consisting of Danish language training and work internship within 1 month after having been granted asylum and being offered accommodation in a municipality (Integrationsloven).