Educating migrant children and women in the political projects of the welfare nation-state and secularization: The Danish ‘extreme case’ in light of the French

Those of the European populations with a migration history are frequently an object of public debate that includes the question of education: How to handle migrants in national educational institutions? People with a migration history have since the late 20th century functioned as a political demarcation line, making the question of the nation articulate. Also, such debates have functioned as a passage for the question of religion to be articulated in public and political debates in the form of a special attention to the Muslim parts of the European population with a newer migratory history, as it has been the case in the Nordic welfare state Denmark as well as in France. In both states children and women and their role in educational institutions as well as the desire to ‘educate’ and reform them, have been a center for attention.
Based on the cases of Denmark and France, the chapter argues that the problematized character of “the too religious migrant” for the political project of educational nationalism should be understood in light of the social-state and welfare-state project as it has evolved across Europe since late 19th century simultaneously and interlocked with the political projects of the nation-state and of secularization.