Precarious (Dis)Placement: Temporality and the Legal Rewriting of Refugee Protection in Denmark

This article addresses the legal reconfigurations of refuge and its consequences for people displaced by war state violence. Within Western countries signatory to 1951 Convention Relating Status Refugees, refugee protection has traditionally served as a solution conflict-induced displacement offering path permanent residence citizenship. Yet, in wake recent global “refugee crises,” several have introduced new statuses that only allow refugees stay temporarily. In this article, I focus on one such intervention Denmark fall 2014, which targets Syrian refugees. Through feminist geo-legal analysis statute surrounding policy documents, illustrate how Danish mobilized subtle interventions transform meaning character protection. By differentially classifying groups according calculations threat risk, show these maneuverings work deny basic rights make them subject intimidation, surveillance, deportation. argue functions mechanism sociospatial b/ordering produces series displacements limits refugees’ access effective under Convention. doing so, advance critical discussions temporary status, displacement, refuge.