Faculty of Social Science, Department of Culture and Global Studies Global Refugee Studies A postcolonial genealogical analysis of the differential ordering of humanity in a Danish context from c. 1700-2019, and a discussion of this ordering’s influence on contemporary immigration and asylum policy Brian Traantoft Rasmussen (20171359) Supervisor: Martin Lemberg-Pedersen Submission: October 2019 Characters: 183.213 Granted permission to additionally 10% by supervisor Abstract Using a genealogical approach and historiographic archival research in a postcolonial perspective, this thesis examines continuities and ruptures in the hierarchical differential ordering of humanity over nearly 350 years. With a point of departure in the Danish-Norwegian Caribbean colonialism in the 17th century, I examine the institutionalized commodification of enslaved Africans in the plantocratic political economy and discuss the binary constructed categorization of white/free/civilized and black/unfree/uncivilized. By applying Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis on a divergent source material, I analyze how the colonial dichotomous ordering of humanity was constantly challenged and renegotiated throughout the Danish colonialism, by the importation of white convicts from 1672-1685 and because of an increasing population of black freepersons. By applying concepts of biopower and biopolitics, I examine how the Danish state and colonial administration continuously implemented regulatory legislation in order to control both enslaved and freepersons in the colonial differential ordered humanity until the emancipation in 1848. I then proceed to examine how the binary differential ordering of humanity were developed through scientific racism and international discourses of imperialism into a stratified differential ordering based not only on race but on ethnicity, civilization and place of origin as well. I discuss how this stratified ordering influenced Danish discourses in relation to Indian indentured in Danish West India in the 1860s, Chinese immigrants in Denmark in the 1900s and in relation to the Refugee Convention from 1951. Lastly, I examine how the stratified ordering of differential humanity can be said to influence contemporary immigration and asylum policy in a Danish context. I analyze the development in Danish immigration and asylum policy from 2001-2019 in the framework of civic stratification and stratified rights by going through the most fundamental legislative changes and their different readings. Seen in the perspective of civic stratification and stratified rights, I argue that the differential ordering of humanity can be said to render certain humans invisible and/or unwanted in the contemporary refugee regime, when excluding certain individuals from international protection, equal access to rights or financial support based on their ethnicity, place of origin or culture. 2 This thesis thereby illustrates how merging a genealogical approach with historiographic archival research in a postcolonial perspective, can provide a fruitful basis for discussions on contemporary immigration and asylum policy. This thesis will point in the direction of further postcolonial research into the modern politics of forced displacement and into postcolonial histories of inclusion and exclusion, while simultaneously expanding the field of research within migration and forced displacement with a spatial and temporal dimension. Keywords: postcolonialism, plantocracy, differential humanity, stratification, scientific racism 3 Table of contents Acronyms .......................................................................................................................................................... 6 List of Illustrations ............................................................................................................................................ 6 List of Tables ..................................................................................................................................................... 6 Clarification of Key Terms ................................................................................................................................ 7 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 9 Structure of the Paper ...................................................................................................................................... 11 Methodology.................................................................................................................................................... 12 The Challenge of Conceptualization ........................................................................................................... 12 Archives, Archivalization and Postcolonial Archival Research .................................................................. 16 Source Material ........................................................................................................................................... 17 The Genealogical Method ........................................................................................................................... 18 Critical Discourse Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 20 Theory ............................................................................................................................................................. 23 Biopolitics and Biopower ............................................................................................................................ 23 Part I ................................................................................................................................................................ 25 The Danish Caribbean Colonialism ............................................................................................................. 25 Dehumanization through Renaming and Branding ..................................................................................... 26 The White Labor Force ............................................................................................................................... 28 ‘Blackness’ and ‘Whiteness’ ....................................................................................................................... 30 Biopolitical Regulations – Gardelin’s Code 1733 ....................................................................................... 31 Demographic Metamorphoses ..................................................................................................................... 34 The Scientification of ‘Race’ Theory .......................................................................................................... 37 The Abolition of the Danish Slave Trade .................................................................................................... 39 Increasing Access to Rights ......................................................................................................................... 42 Abolishment of the Slavery ......................................................................................................................... 43 Sub-Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 44 Part II ............................................................................................................................................................... 45 The Danish Import of “Coolie Immigrants” ................................................................................................ 45 Contemporary Scientific Discourses ........................................................................................................... 49 Chinese Immigration to Denmark, 1900-1920 ............................................................................................ 51 ‘The Yellow Peril’ ................................................................................................................................... 51 The Case of Mr. Field .............................................................................................................................. 54 4 Conventions and legislation ........................................................................................................................ 55 Part III .............................................................................................................................................................. 56 A European Authoritarian Exclusionism ..................................................................................................... 56 A ‘Firm and Fair’ Immigration and Asylum Policy .................................................................................... 57 The ‘Willingness’ to Integration .................................................................................................................. 60 A New Balance in the Integration and Immigration Policy ........................................................................ 62 The “Jewelry Law” ...................................................................................................................................... 64 The Paradigm Shift .....................................................................................................................................