An analysis of belonging of Post-Yugoslav women in Denmark
Author
Sitte, Marina
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2022
Abstract
Denne afhandling undersøger, hvordan højtuddannede migrantkvinder fra Bosnien-Hercegovina, Kroatien og Serbien forstår deres tilhørighed i Danmark. Med udgangspunkt i Danmarks stærke nationale selvforståelse og offentlige diskurser, der ofte fremstiller udlændinge som “de andre”, samt en særlig vægt på kønsligestilling som kulturel kerneværdi, søger studiet at udvide fokus ud over stereotype antagelser om “den fremmede kvinde”. Seks kvinder i 30’erne, bosat i København i 2–10 år og med universitetsuddannelse, blev interviewet, og data blev analyseret tematisk inden for en fænomenologisk tilgang og informeret af teorier om forestillede fællesskaber, den danske kulturelle verden af uoverstigelige forskelle og kønnet nationalisme. Deltagerne beskrev tilhørighed som en overvejende negativ og “enten-eller” præget erfaring, formet af normaliserede medienarrativer, der racialisere udlændinge: Enten skjules egen kultur og dansk kultur assimileres, hvilket giver en beskyttende, men fortsat usynlig position, eller også mødes synligt udtryk for egen kultur med eksklusion. I begge tilfælde forbindes tilhørighed med usynlighed. Køn fremstod som centralt for kvindernes muligheder for inklusion, og i samspil med alder påvirkede det deres trivsel i Danmark. Studiet bidrager med fortællingsbaseret viden om højtuddannede post-jugoslaviske kvinders hverdagsliv og udfordrer antagelsen om, at europæiske migrantkvinder integreres uproblematisk.
This thesis examines how highly skilled migrant women from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia understand their sense of belonging in Denmark. Against the backdrop of Denmark’s strong national identity and public discourses that often mark foreigners as “others,” and with gender equality as a core cultural value, the study broadens attention beyond stereotyped assumptions about “the foreign woman.” Six university-educated women in their thirties, living in Copenhagen for 2–10 years, were interviewed, and the material was analyzed thematically within a phenomenological approach, drawing on theories of imagined communities, the Danish cultural world of unbridgeable differences, and gendered nationalism. Participants depicted belonging as largely negative and characterized by an “either-or” dynamic shaped by normalized media narratives that racialize foreigners: either they hide their own culture and assimilate into Danish norms, gaining a protective yet still invisible position, or they are excluded when expressing their culture. In both instances, belonging is tied to invisibility. Gender emerged as central to women’s inclusion, and in interaction with age it influenced their well-being in Denmark. The study provides narrative-based insights into the everyday experiences of highly skilled post-Yugoslav women and challenges assumptions that European migrant women integrate effortlessly.
[This summary has been generated with the help of AI directly from the project (PDF)]
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