Otherism in Discourses, Integration in Policies?: Comparing French and Danish educational policies for migrants

In this study of educational policies aimed at migrants in France and Denmark, we examine how both countries display the same mixture of integration policies and of discourses of hostility portraying migrants as scapegoats. Educational policies are seen as a fundamental tool to speed up the integration of migrants, yet these are seen as a potential threat to national equilibrium and cohesion. This contradiction results from specific forms of policy construction and patterns of discursive spaces. This led us to argue, using the Foucauldian concept of governmentality, against a unified conception of the power yielded by the state on migrants.