There has in Denmark been a heightened awareness of integration as well the matter of national identity and belonging. The discussion about what makes you “Danish” has intensified with the influx of refugees. There has in this debate been a specific focus on Muslims. Social integration is typically valued on objective and functional measurements while a specific identification of social integration is underexposed. Furthermore a lot research is centred on male descendants and immigrants. This thesis illustrates how young female descendants of Muslim immigrants from the Middle East experiences their national identity and sense of belonging to Denmark and how this affects their understandings of social integration. To answer this question have I made five narrative interviews with young female descendants of Muslim immigrants from the Middle East. The empirical data is processed in a three-piece analysis.

In the first two parts of the analysis is Richard Jenkins’ theory of identification, categorization and classification used as well as Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition. Hereby is an understanding created of how categorizations influence the young women’s experiences of national identity and belonging. Furthermore is it identified that more young women experiences a strong sense of belonging to the local area. These experiences have an impact on their understanding of social integration because the categorizations influence their experiences of being excluded from society. Furthermore being a reason for the violation forms the women experience in the sphere of solidarity and the sphere of contractual respect. To use an intersectional perspective in the third part of the analysis contributes to a broader understanding of how national identity, sense of belonging and social integration occur in dynamic processes on separate levels where power and inequality are mixed with perceptions of categories.

On the basis of the analysis follows a critical discussion of Honneth’s theory of recognition and a further discussion of whether social work has the practical space for action to work with an identification aspect of social integration. The thesis concludes that a greater focus on an identification aspect of social integration will give a more complete understanding of the young women’s experiences of social integration in Denmark. Furthermore can it be concluded that a grander focus on the identification aspect of social integration can have great importance to social work.