The Velux Foundation provided a grant of approximately EUR 1 million for research by the Reorienting integration: Family-to-family as a model for Congolese UN quota refugees in Denmark project. The project, which began in 2022, conducts ethnographic studies among families in this group and makes use of register data to create various reports on their integration. It is being run by the Department of Anthropology at Aarhus University, in collaboration with the National Research and Analysis Centre for Welfare (VIVE), the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), and Danish municipalities.
So far, the project has published 10 reports. Report topics include the elderly and young people, romantic lives, social relations within families, inclusion in Christian communities, arrival conditions, and accommodation in local municipalities. Some publications are academic papers; others are made for a broader audience and contain specific and practical recommendations for front-line workers.
‘The project gives us the opportunity to be involved from day one and understand the small and large challenges that are constantly associated with building a radically new life and existence. This knowledge will be useful if there are more quota refugees arriving in the coming years’ said Mikkel Rytter, professor at the Department of Anthropology at Aarhus University and manager of the project.
After a break of 5 years, Denmark recommenced its programme for receiving ‘quota refugees’ in 2021. The quota stands at 200 per year, with places mostly reserved for single mothers and children of Congolese origin who have been residing for many years in refugee camps in Rwanda.
