‘DANES AND IMMIGRANTS DON’T REALLY HAVE ANY RELATIONS’: IDENTITIES, RELATIONS AND EVERYDAY PRACTICES IN A MIXED RESIDENTIAL AREA IN COPENHAGEN

Tina Gudrun Jensen (The Danish National Centre for Social Research)
Multiple daily forms of urban relation-making often contest national rhetoric on migrants´ failed integration and separation. Urban planning that focuses on the need to construct settings of diversity out of situations of “ghettoization” neglects not only the role of migrants as urban scale-makers who are part of the constitution of city opportunity structures for all residents (Glick-Schiller & Caglar 2009, 2012) but also the way that cities in a range of different ways are regenerated through inter-ethnic encounters (Simonsen 2008). Studies emphasizing space within the dynamics of city making note that neighborhoods become the contexts for the construction of inter-ethnic relationships and identifications (Germain 2002). Being neighbors is the most recurrent basis for interaction between people of different ethnic backgrounds, contributing to defining persons and locating their belonging in society as well as generating social capital (Herbert 2008).

This presentation examines inter-ethnic neighborhood relations in a mixed residential area in Copenhagen, focusing on relations between majority Danes and ethnic minorities Given that neighbourhoods represent lived sites constituting the city and contexts for the construction of identifications, the focus is on the actual prospects of creating multi-ethnic neighbourhoods. The presentation examines the meaning and effect of contact between ethnic majority neighbors and ethnic minority neighbors through a focus on their neighborhood relations and experiences of sharing space. The presentation explores the content of identifications, interactions, relationships and attitudes among neighbours of respectively ethnic minority and majority background. Furthermore, the presentation maintains that a discrepancy exists between the neighbors´ narratives on and actual practices of inter-ethnic relations. While public debate on inter-ethnic relations focusing on “us” versus “them” provides a structuring frame for narratives on inter-ethnic relations, practices of neighborhood relations tend to dissolve this narrative.

Tina Gudrun Jensen is a senior researcher at The Danish National Centre for Social Research. Her main areas of interest are ethnic minorities, social integration, inter-ethnic relations and cultural complexity. She has carried out research among Muslim movements in Denmark, focusing on the construction of Danish-Muslim identities, relations between Muslims and Danes, and the question of value changes. Another area of research is the interface between gender, culture and violence.
(Note day!) Monday 18 March, 14.15-16.00 (Note day!)
Uni Rokkan Centre, Nygårdsgaten 5, 6th Floor

Poster

SEMINAR SERIES ON TRANS-EUROPEAN POWERS AND THE RE-STRUCTURING OF MAJORITY-MINORITY RELATIONS

Seminar organizer: Hakan G. Sicakkan