The Status of the Asylum-seeking Child in Norway and Denmark: Comparing Discourses, Politics and Practices

This article discusses how asylum-seeking children are positioned in discourse, politics and practice in Norway and Denmark through a comparative analysis of schooling, the use of hearings in asylum cases, and the grounds for being granted humanitarian residence permits. Building on Laclau's theory of hegemony created through discursive struggles for universality over particularity, the article concludes that while in Norway a discourse of national border control competes equally with that of the protection of the child, in Denmark the former discourse has gained hegemony. In Norway asylum-seeking children are positioned as both asylum-seekers and children, with rights to normal schooling, to being heard in the asylum process, and to possible humanitarian residence permits based on attachment to Norway. By contrast, in Denmark these children are primarily positioned as asylum-seekers-with the possibility of a humanitarian residence permit based only on their or their parents' illness, with no separate hearings, and with access primarily limited to schooling without credits.