Education, citizenship and the ‘new’ migrants
International Research Seminar
May 10-11, 2012
Department of Education, Aarhus University
&
Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen
In relation to migration, the idea of citizenship is closely associated with newcomers being able to
establish themselves, often on a temporary basis, in a country where they have no formal legal or
political rights. The meaning of the term citizenship has been expanded from the conventional political
science interpretation, which defines it as a set of rights practised in a vertical relationship between
the state and the individual, to a more inclusive and actor-oriented understanding emphasizing how
people gain membership in collective life (Kabeer 2005). Citizenship, thus, cannot be reduced to only
legal status and entitlements, given or denied by the state, but refers to a notion of societal
membership, which involves both available resources and subjective experiences of belonging (cf.
Rosaldo 1994). While the relationship between citizenship and education has primarily been
discussed from a normative, pedagogical perspective with a focus on the responsibility of the school in
shaping future citizens of a certain kind, an anthropological perspective opens up for the many
diverse, more or less formalized educational settings where citizenship formation takes place,
intentionally and unintentionally (Reed-Danahay 2007).
This seminar will focus on the relationship between education, citizenship and transnational
migration. More specifically, it will examine how different categories of migrants claim societal
membership in new settings and how they, often through mediating institutions, learn to behave as
‘proper’ citizens without necessarily being nationals. From a cross-cultural perspective the seminar
will focus on the following questions:
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How do institutions, broadly defined, interpret, mediate and contribute to regulating the
relationship between the state and the migrants, and how do migrants, individually and
collectively, respond to this?
What is the role of the academic qualifications acquired by young migrants compared to the
wide spectrum of other skills (e.g. technical, social, bureaucratic) needed in order to claim
citizenship? Do some forms of educational achievements and qualifications lead to stronger
sentiments of belonging than others, if so which?
To what extent do different categories of transnational migrants use localized strategies and
identities as a means to claim citizenship? What is the role of interpersonal relations and
marriage alliances in migrants’ development of societal membership and feelings of
entitlement? How does their official status as documented, undocumented and semidocumented immigrants influence this development?
Do migrants develop a form of cosmopolitan subjectivity that allows them to imagine global
citizenship? If so, how may the image of global citizenship be formed by localised experiences
of social life in the host community?
Programme
Thursday May 10, 2012
9.00-9.30
Welcome and introduction
Session I:
Mobility and imperial spaces
9.30-10.15
Children as an “Imperial Investment”: Raising British child migrants into decent colonial
citizens in Southern Rhodesia, Katja Uusihakala, Department of Social Research,
University of Helsinki
10.15-11.00 Becoming a Respectable Citizen in British Society: The Training of Caribbean Nurses in the
Post-WWII Period, Karen Fog Olwig, Department of Anthropology, University of
Copenhagen
11.00-11.15 Tea/coffee
11.15-12.00 Unbound by other peoples’ bills: Greenlandic students in Denmark, Janne Flora, Scott Polar
Research Institute, University of Cambridge
12.00-12.15 Comments by discussant, Peggy Froerer, Department of Anthropology, Brunel University
12.15-13.15 Lunch
Session II: Institutional frameworks and individual expectations of citizenship
13.15-14.00 ‘Foreign’ in the School, but ‘Dane’ in the future? Strategies of Pan-Ethnic Solidarity and
Legal Citizenship among Newly Arrived Refugee Adolescents in Rural Denmark, Birgitte
Romme Larsen, Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen
14.00-14.45 Ideologies of mutuality, acts of hospitality: The sociable fashioning of good classmates out
of foreigners’ children, Sally Anderson, Department of Education, Aarhus University
14.45-15.15 Tea/coffee
15.15-16.00 "The two most famous words in Denmark are work and bingo": Refugees encountering
citizenship teaching in Danish language centers, Zacharya Whyte, Department of
Anthropology, University of Copenhagen
16.00-16.45 “Learning the Danish Way”? Processes of inclusion in Somali associations in Denmark,
Nauja Kleist, Danish Institute for International Studies
16.45-17.00 Comments by discussant, Bradley Levinson, Department of Educational Leadership and
Policy Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington
Friday May 11, 2012
Session III: Imagined and practiced ties to place: temporal aspects of migration
9.30-10.15
Temporality, the gift and the future return to Greenland. Citizenship formation among
Greenlandic students in Denmark, Line Seier Madsen, Department of Anthropology,
University of Copenhagen
10.15-11.00 “We are like them but not one of them”: Migration, sense of belonging and claiming of
citizenship, Anita Ghimire, Kathmandu University / NCCR North South
11.00-11.15 Tea/coffee
11.15-12.00 Citizenship through Memoir and Collective Ritual: Learning New Forms of Affiliation
among Vietnamese Americans, Deborah Reed-Danahay, Department of Anthropology,
University at Buffalo (SUNY)
12.00-12.15 Comments by discussant, Bradley Levinson, Department of Educational Leadership and
Policy Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington
12.15-13.15 Lunch
Session IV: Educational migration and citizenship regimes
13.15-14.00 Educational Strategies among new Philippine migrants in Denmark:
Tensions between Cultural and Legal Citizenship Karina Dalgas, Department of
Anthropology, University of Copenhagen
14.00-14.45 “I am not going to Denmark, I am going to Europe:”Localized strategies of migration and
transnational sentiments of citizenship among Nepalese students in Denmark, Karen
Valentin, Department of Education, Aarhus University
14.45-15.15 Tea/coffee
15.15-16.00 Glocal interfaces: Danish citizenship regimes and Ukrainian youth trajectories, Vera
Skvirskaja, Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen
16.00-16.15 Comments by discussant, Peggy Froerer, Department of Anthropology, Brunel University
Venue:
Department of Education (former DPU), Aarhus University, Tuborgvej 164,
2400 Copenhagen NV, room C001 (below the canteen)
Participation is free of charge, but registration is necessary – to Karen Valentin kava@dpu.dk .