Abstract
This thesis examines the norms in the existing European Union legislation and Danish legislation about migration and anti-discrimination. Migration in the European Union is not a new phenomenon. The topic of migration has become a contested subject among EU politicians and citizens alike. The so-called ‘refugee crisis’ of 2015 influenced a change in the political landscape of Europe, in that there has been an emergence of far-right political parties, a favouring of the national (for example, Brexit) and an increase in the anti-immigrant narrative. This change in the political landscape has resulted in an advance of structural discrimination towards migrants. The aim of the thesis is to analyse the relationship between EU legislation and the legislation of an EU member state (Denmark) focusing on norms about migration and anti-discrimination and whether the EU norms are translated, appropriated or contested in Denmark.
The theoretical framework of the thesis is based on Susanne Zwingel’s work on norm translation, which understands norms as travelling from one context to another and that contexts (global, regional, national, and local) are interrelated. The theory has facilitated an understanding of how EU norms travel and how they are translated in Denmark. Concretely, the understandings of norm translation theory enabled the identification of norms in both EU and Danish legislation and it was used to assess whether the EU norms about migration and anti-discrimination are translated, appropriated or contested in Denmark.
To answer the problem formulation, a document analysis of existing legislation is used as the research method to analyse the norms about migration and anti-discrimination in both EU and Danish legislation. The document analysis combined with the understandings of norm translation enabled the analysis of the norms in the EU legislation and subsequently the Danish legislation. The results of the analysis demonstrate that EU norms about migration and anti-discrimination are translated in Denmark, in that it is evident that the norms travel between contexts and are negotiated and appropriated. This is interesting since it illustrates how Denmark adopts EU norms. In the analysis, it was evident that, in some cases, the understanding of EU norms was slightly different in Denmark, hence the translation and appropriation of norms. Contrariwise, there were no apparent contestation of EU norms in the Danish legislation. Ultimately, EU norms about migration and anti-discrimination are translated and appropriated in the Danish legislation.