This thesis consists of a qualitative research study conducted in an activation project between the Municipality of Copenhagen and Danish Refugee Council. The purpose is to examine how unemployed non-Western immigrant women, who have other problems in addition to unemployment, see themselves in relation to the labour market and what their experiences of and reactions to the activation project are. The examined project is called "injunction to integration" and aims to get more non-Western immigrants into work. The collected data consists of five qualitative interviews with women participating in the project.

To investigate the main question above the thesis is divided into three research questions. First question focuses on the labour market perspective of the women, which is based on the theoretical framework of Rahbek Christensen's life form of housewifes, Skytte's collectivist/individualist outlook on life and Bourdieu's habitus. It shows that the women's labour market perspective is influenced by the social structures under which they grew up. Women were often expected to be housewives in their country of origin and this continued after moving to Denmark. Today all five women want to participate in the labour market but for different reasons, which includes avoiding the cash benefit system.
The second research question concerns the women's barriers to entering the labour market and it provides an understanding of why the women do not work although they express a wish to do so. It shows that the women have massive barriers consisting of a lack of country-specific human capital in the form of education, work experience and Danish language. In addition they have severe health problems, social problems and they are subject to social norms and expectations from their own strong network. Several of these barriers can be understood from the social structures in Denmark.
Finally the last research question concerns the women's experiences of and reaction to being forced into participating in the project. This shows that all women demonstrate resistance to the project, which can be understood by Honneth's theory of recognition. The women feel offended as ethical and legal persons because they are not recognized as who they are. While the women express that they would work if they could, the cash benefit system considers that the women could work if they wanted to, i.e. the women lack the inner desire to work. This lack of recognition means that the women exhibit resistance, which can affect the outcome of the project.