‘Let’s Get Together’: Perspectives on Multiculturalism and Local Implications in Denmark

Abstract

Multiculturalism is — as both a descriptive and a normative term — frequently conceptually framed as relating to the policies of the nation-state. This chapter focuses on aspects of multiculturalism in Denmark, a relatively small Scandinavian country. It looks at past and present implications of multiculturalism, and, further, includes a dynamic perspective on state and municipal understandings of multiculturalism. Denmark can, on a state level, be seen as a strong opponent to multiculturalism, but such views are highly contrasted by local policies, most notably within the capital of Copenhagen. As with other ‘world cities’ (Massey 2007), Copenhagen’s city administration seeks to attract highly skilled labour, capital and tourists through the marketing of ethnic diversity. Ethnic and other aspects of social diversity are celebrated in the central squares of Copenhagen and stand at the centre of the city’s integration policies, particularly as a means to access the resources of its citizens and to prevent ethnic tensions. The second part of the chapter discusses these dimensions of Copenhagen’s multiculturalist policies, based on ethnographic fieldwork in Nørrebro, one of the city’s most ethnically diverse neighbourhoods. As such, the chapter calls for a multilayered social analysis of policies and practices (in this case, state and municipality) to understand multiculturalism as policy and conviviality (Gilroy 2004).