Chapter 5: The Impact of Recent Political Changes Upon Programs for Language Minority Immigrant and Refugee Children in Roskilde, Denmark

This chapter is based on findings from a qualitative case study of the implementation of a three-year (1997-2000) project targeting the school-readiness of non-Danish speaking immigrant and refugee children of preschool age in Roskilde, Denmark (Virtue 2002). The Roskilde Integration Project involved enrolling non-Danish-speaking children in preschool institutions, educating their parents about Danish child rearing and educational traditions, and preparing preschool staff to work with these children and their families.

Since the conclusion of my study, the integration effort in Roskilde has faced certain challenges. At the end of 1999, the organizational structure of the Integration Project changed as it became an institutionalized part of the municipal bureaucracy. Then, in November 2001, the Danes elected a right-wing government that initiated significant changes in policies targeting immigrants and refugees (see e.g., Burcharth 2002; Finn 2002; Smith 2002). In this chapter, the findings from my case study will be augmented by data collected since these changes occurred, allowing an analysis of how the implementation of the integration effort in Roskilde has adapted to a new organizational structure and a different political environment, and a further exploration of relationships between national and local policy responses to non-Danish-speaking immigrants and refugees.