In this seminar, Professor Michelle Pace discusses her recent and timely publication of Un–welcome to Denmark. The Paradigm Shift and Refugee Integration (Manchester University Press, 16 December 2025). She will examine how restrictive asylum and integration policies shape refugees' experiences of belonging, precarity and wellbeing. Focusing on the relationship between policy, place and everyday life, the discussion explores how legal insecurity, temporary protection, and spatial marginalization affect refugee mental health and social integration. Using Denmark as a case study, she situates these developments within wider European trends and considers their implications for research, policy, and practice at the intersection of migration governance and mental health.

About the Speaker

Michelle Pace is Professor in Global Studies based in Roskilde, Denmark. She is also Associate Fellow, Europe Program at Chatham House, London. She has been the Danish lead partner on the Horizon Europe project SHAPEDEM-EU (2022-2025) and, prior to that, on the SIRIUS Horizon 2020 (2018-2021) project. An interdisciplinary scholar, she has been trained as a political scientist, with her research and teaching focusing on the intersection between European / Middle East / Critical Migration / Democratization and Peace & Conflict Studies. During her time at the University of Birmingham in the UK (2003 - 2014) she was Principal Investigator on a British Academy funded project entitled A ‘Modern’ Islamist Democracy? Perceptions of democratization in the Arab-Mediterranean world and an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project on Paradoxes and Contradictions in EU democracy promotion efforts in the Middle East. Her book publications include Knowledge Production in Higher Education: Between Europe and the Middle East (MUP, 2023), the Routledge Handbook of EU–Middle East Relations (Routledge, 2021), The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank: The Theatrics of Woeful Statecraft (Routledge, 2019), Syrian Refugee Children in the Middle East and Europe: Integrating the Young and Exiled (Routledge, 2018), The European Union's Democratization Agenda in the Mediterranean (Routledge, 2013), Europe, the USA and Political Islam: Strategies for Engagement (Palgrave, 2011), Conceptualizing Cultural and Social Dialogue in the Euro-Mediterranean Area. A European Perspective (Routledge, 2007) and The Politics of Regional Identity. Meddling with the Mediterranean (Routledge, 2006). Michelle has been a co-editor of the peer reviewed journal Mediterranean Politics and is now an active member of its editorial board. Her book Un-welcome to Denmark. The paradigm shift and refugee integration was published by MUP on 16 December 2025.

Book related to the talk: Pace, Michelle with Sarah El-Abd. "Un-welcome to Denmark: The paradigm shift and refugee integration." Manchester University Press.

 

About the event organisers

This event is organised by the Refugee Mental Health and Place Network and co-sponsored by the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health.

Refugee Mental Health and Place Network

The Refugee Mental Health and Place Network is a growing network of researchers and community organisations exploring post-migration factors and refugee mental health. We seek to strengthen interdisciplinary expertise and intersectoral capacity to inform health and social policy to help improve mental health outcomes for refugees and asylum seekers. Read more in our recent blog on Understanding the role of place in refugee mental health to inform policy.

ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health

The ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health develops research to promote and sustain good mental health in communities. We aim to shift public debate about mental health away from a focus on individualised interventions, towards social practices and policies that promote and sustain good mental health.

More information

This online event forms part of the Refugee Mental Health and Place Series, a collection of events which aims to deepen our understanding of the role of place in refugee mental health outcomes, the structural causes of mental health differences, and community sources of support.

Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Directory for Refugees and Migrants in London

The MHPSS Directory is a broad and detailed list of organisations providing mental health and social support services to migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in London and Greater London.

Find out more and download the MHPSS directory.

Contact us

We would like all our events to be inclusive and accessible. Please do not hesitate to contact us by email to csmh@kcl.ac.uk to let us know if you have any access requirements or to find out more about this session.