Discussion – Un–Welcome to Denmark: The Paradigm Shift and Refugee Integration
Tuesday 24 February 2026, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm GMT, London, UK
This panel marks the publication of Un–welcome to Denmark. The Paradigm Shift and Refugee Integration, a timely and critical examination of Denmark’s transformation from a model of humanitarian protection to a restrictive, deterrence–based asylum regime. Drawing on legal analysis, policy developments, and integration outcomes, the book situates Danish refugee policy within broader European and global debates on migration governance. Professor Pace will discuss the social implications of the so–called “paradigm shift” in refugee protection, exploring how policy changes have reshaped integration trajectories, affected refugees’ rights and everyday lived experiences and challenged long–standing assumptions about welfare states, solidarity and belonging.
Speaker Bio
Michelle Pace is Professor in Global Studies based in Roskilde, Denmark. She is also Associate Fellow, Europe Program at Chatham House, London. She has been the Danish lead partner on the Horizon Europe project SHAPEDEM-EU (2022-2025) and, prior to that, on the SIRIUS Horizon 2020 (2018-2021) project. An interdisciplinary scholar, she has been trained as a political scientist, with her research and teaching focusing on the intersection between European / Middle East / Critical Migration / Democratization and Peace & Conflict Studies.
During her time at the University of Birmingham in the UK (2003 – 2014) she was Principal Investigator on a British Academy funded project entitled A ‘Modern’ Islamist Democracy? Perceptions of democratization in the Arab-Mediterranean world and an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project on Paradoxes and Contradictions in EU democracy promotion efforts in the Middle East. Her book publications include Knowledge Production in Higher Education: Between Europe and the Middle East (MUP, 2023), the Routledge Handbook of EU–Middle East Relations (Routledge, 2021), The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank: The Theatrics of Woeful Statecraft (Routledge, 2019), Syrian Refugee Children in the Middle East and Europe: Integrating the Young and Exiled (Routledge, 2018), The European Union’s Democratization Agenda in the Mediterranean (Routledge, 2013), Europe, the USA and Political Islam: Strategies for Engagement (Palgrave, 2011), Conceptualizing Cultural and Social Dialogue in the Euro-Mediterranean Area. A European Perspective (Routledge, 2007) and The Politics of Regional Identity. Meddling with the Mediterranean (Routledge, 2006). Michelle has been a co-editor of the peer reviewed journal Mediterranean Politics and is now an active member of its editorial board. Her book Un-welcome to Denmark. The paradigm shift and refugee integration was published by MUP on 16 December 2025.
This event is International State Crime Initiative; Climate Crime and Climate Justice; Centre for the Critique of Law and Society.
Find more information and book your free place here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/unwelcome-to-denmark-the-paradigm-shift-and-refugee-integration-tickets-1980475542661
This event will be held in Room 313, 3rd Floor, School of Law, Queen Mary University, Mile End Road, London, UK.