Mixed Parentage: Negotiating Identity in Denmark

Abstract

Despite an increase in cross border intimate relationships and children of mixed parentage, there is little mention or scholarship about them in the area of childhood and migrancy in the Nordic countries. The international literature implies historical pathologization, contestation and current complex paradigms regarding these children. This chapter explores how children of mixed parentage negotiate their identities in the Danish context, where statistically and socially there are no widely acceptable terms for categorizing them. To this purpose, an empirical qualitative in-depth interview study of children and young people of mixed parentage residing in Copenhagen area is conducted. The theoretical framework is eclectic, combining post-structural approach with mixed identity negotiation theory and transnationalism. The main conclusion is that the children reveal various strategies of identity formation in the context of partial migrancy. They position themselves as having an “in-between” identity or “just Danes” in their everyday lives among friends, family, and during leisure activities. Thus a new paradigm is evolving away from the pathologization of mixed children, simplified one-sided categories. These findings also have implications for social policy and practices related to mixed children.