"Sometime we lie a little": negotiating sustainability, when temporality disturbs social work with refugees.

Since 2015 Denmark has passed a number of asylum laws aimed at limiting refugee protection to a human rights minimum. As a result, all residence permits granted to refugees are now temporary.

However, this fundamental temporality is not reflected in Danish integration procedures. Refugees are still presented to integration systems with a main focus on employment for adults, and a long-term understanding of integration for children. Accordingly, the refugees are facing a contradictory imperative: “Integrate and leave!”, but they seem to be left somewhat alone with this contradiction, as the welfare professionals they meet, still focus on a (legally outdated) understanding of integration in a long-term perspective.
Based on a research project with 27 social workers, this paper will explore the logics among social workers who in their daily practice negotiate, ignore or lie about the temporary legal condition for the refugees they work with in order to carry out their main assignment: Integration.