Why is...Denmark unwelcoming to Refugees?

Episode 40

Why has Denmark - once known for its humanitarian ideals - become so unwelcoming to refugees? In this episode, Michelle Pace, Associate Fellow at Chatham House, joins us to discuss her new book "Un-Welcome in Denmark: The Paradigm Shift and Refugee Integration" (Manchester University Press, 2025), co-authored with Sarah El‑Abd. A leading voice on Europe-Middle East relations, migration, and democratization, Pace has published widely in journals such as Mediterranean Politics, Journal of Common Market Studies, and Third World Quarterly. Her books include Knowledge Production in Higher Education (MUP, 2023), The Routledge Handbook of EU–Middle East Relations (2021), and Syrian Refugee Children in the Middle East and Europe (2018). In conversation with Polly Pallister-Wilkins, Michelle Pace unpacks how Denmark’s “paradigm shift” in refugee policy reflects deeper European anxieties about belonging, identity, and moral responsibility.

Pace, M. (2025). Un-welcome to Denmark. The paradigm shift and refugee integration. Manchester University Press.

Pace, M., & Völkel, J. C. (Eds.) (2023). Knowledge production in higher education: Between Europe and the Middle East. (1 ed.) Manchester University Press.

Bouris, D., Huber, D., & Pace, M. (Eds.). (2021). Routledge Handbook of EU–Middle East Relations (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429317873

Pace, M., & Sen, S. (2019). The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank: The theatrics of woeful statecraft. Routledge.

Pace, M., & Sen, S. (Eds.). (2018). Syrian refugee children in the Middle East and Europe: Integrating the young and exiled. Routledge.

Pace, M. (2011). Europe, the USA and political Islam: Strategies for engagement. Springer.

Pace, M., & Seeberg, P. (Eds.). (2010). The European Union's Democratization Agenda in the Mediterranean (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315875743

Pace, M., & Schumacher, T. (Eds.). (2007). Conceptualizing Cultural and Social Dialogue in the Euro-Mediterranean Area: A European Perspective (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203826485

Pace, M. (2005). The Politics of Regional Identity: Meddling with the Mediterranean (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203414521