To Be, or Not to Be Danish: Multi-Ethnic and Multi-Racial Identity in a ‘Raceless’ Society

This dissertation research examines the boundary-making process of 'being Danish' and focuses on the ethno-racialisation of multiracial ethnic-Danes. How can you be multiracial in a society where race does not officially exist? In theory, race should not matter in Denmark because in-group membership is demarcated by immigration status, and there is no racial enumeration. With examples of personal stories from life-narrative interviews with multiracial and multi-ethnic Danes, my research shows how multiracials' daily experiences differ from White-ethnic Danes' experiences. Racialisation processes of multiracial ethnic-Danes’ everyday experiences confirm their insider and outsider status. By examining racialisation, immigration, and group boundary formation in a country absent racial categories, my work expands the sociological understanding of racialisation processes by showing that immigration policies are inherently linked with race irrespective of the socio-political context or claims of Nordic exceptionalism. This research also challenges the assumption that state-imposed racial categories are inherent to a racial hierarchy or necessarily precede commonly used folk categories.

In the first paper, I analyse the differences between older and younger multiracials and find that the understanding of race as a category and the salience of race for multiracial ethnic-Danes has changed over time concurrently with demographic changes and a heightened awareness of racialisation processes. I argue that young multi-racial Danes are uniquely positioned to push public discourse toward a better understanding of how Whiteness is integral to national identity and advocate for a broader Danish identity type that challenges White hegemony and Nordic exceptionalism.

In the second paper, I apply a modified version of Kim Claire’s triangulation framework to explain the specific mechanism by which the everyday experiences of multi-racials confirm both their insider and outsider status. I use my modified framework, Multiracial Relative Racialisation, to explain how the formation of western/non-western categories also creates a social position as a ‘racialised other’ for multiracial ethnic-Danes. In the Danish field of racial positions, White ethnic-Danes ostracise multiracial ethnic-Danes as outsiders and deny them cultural citizenship. At the same time, they receive a valourised status relative to non-western immigrants who are both culturally and legally ostracised. I argue that multiracial ethnic-Danes come to embody a racial identity loosely defined as ‘mixed’, not as a result of institutional racial ascription or to mobilise for resources and power. Instead, through a racial triangulation process that negates their ethno-national identity and limits access to cultural citizenship.

In the third paper, I argue that although White multi-ethnic Danes benefit from White privilege and have access to cultural citizenship and ‘Danishness’, some experience social exclusion and feel conflicted about their national belonging. Multi-ethnic Danes grow up with more than one cultural orientation within their homes and between home and majority culture. The mixing of cultures can cause self-identity confusion, and a combined cultural frame of reference can lead to social blunders in social interactions. Moreover, the extent to which White multi-ethnic Danes experience discrimination and social exclusion depend on their specific ‘other-ethnic’ background because there is variation in the amount of status associated with European ethnicities. For some White multi-ethnic Danes, being White is not a guarantee for complete acceptance in Denmark because group boundary processes include racial and cultural elements.