| Abstract: | Integration of refugees and immigrants in Denmark has so far proved more difficult than expected. In international comarison, Denmark stands out as a laggard, especially when it comes to labor market integration of the new minorities. Xenophobia and prejudices in the majority population are often cited as the main reasons. But individuals from both minorities and the majority also face a collective action dilemma when it comes to integration. In principle a collective action dilemma can be overcome through the working of selective incentives. In the case of integration, however, such incentives are weakened by some of the institutions of the universalistic Danish welfare state. Nevertheless, so far there has been very little ethnicization of Danish social policies. One possible explanation is that such reforms would create a collective action dilemma of their own. Thus the collective action dilemma of welfare state reforms seems to be blocking the solution of the collective action dilemma of integration. |
