Introduction: Throughout the last half century, a massive increase in refugees seeking shelter in other countries due to various reasons, including, war, torture, persecution and unemployment. This emigration of people has put a lot of pressure on the receiving countries welfare systems. Especially since prior studies have concluded, that the refugees have a significantly larger unemployment rate compared to ethnic citizens. Various studies have been conducted investigating the different interventions on how to increase employment in this population and integrate them better in the society. However, few studies have investigated how the refugees experience the meeting with the society they live in and their thoughts up on being a part of the society, hence the following aim.
Aim: The aim of this thesis was to investigate how refugees from non-Western immigrants experience their meeting with the Danish society, including their recognition of status, challenges, violations and appreciation in the system.
Methods: This thesis has been conducted as a semi-structured individual in-depth interview, with four refugees from Aleppo, Syria, who has been living in Denmark between four-six years. The theoretical framework used in the thesis was Axel Honneths recognition theory in understanding social relations and the informants experience about their meeting with the society, including infringement. Furthermore, Erving Goffmans theory on stigma, has been used to investigate the interaction with the system and society and its role and significance, based on categorizations.
Conclusion: In general, the refugees narrated several ongoing issues on how they experience their meeting with the Danish society. Inadequate language skills, challenges in establishing relations to ethnic Danes, cultural collisions and a feeling of violation from the well-fare system, are among the important factors, to be considered. Furthermore, all included refugees experienced categorization and stigma in relation to their meeting with the Danish welfare-system, and certain occasions they felt excluded from the society. In addition, a lack of knowledge about the structure and function of the society and system in Denmark is prevalent among the refugees. All this combined has resulted in anger and mistrust towards the system, and three out of the four refugees included in the investigation does not have any contact with the Danish system now.