Boundary work in times of deterrence: emotionalisation, interdependence and inequality at the interfaces between refugees, state and civil society

The Danish Parliament has increased legal measures to deter asylum seekers from heading to Denmark. Since 2019 all residence permits are granted ‘with a view to temporary residence’, while the criteria for meeting the requirements for permanent stay have been raised. The focus on integrating newcomers has been subordinated to objectives of deterrence and return, placing refugees with temporary residence in Denmark under conditions of deportability. Drawing on critical border and migration studies, this paper explores how deterrence is produced politically and negotiated in local practice. To understand the challenged relations between refugees, volunteers and municipal caseworkers in a context of restrictive legislation and hyper-precarious conditions, we propose a new conceptual approach theorising these changing dynamics, as different practices of ‘boundary work’. Based on fieldwork in three Danish localities (2021–2023), we scrutinise the lived experiences of deterrence by focusing on the boundary work of refugees, as well as of volunteers and caseworkers in the new self-sufficiency and return policy context. We thereby show how interdependence, inequality and emotionalisation processes are reinforced at the interfaces between all three groups. The wider scope of the analysis, we argue, is that these boundary work practices are induced by deterrence policies.