Static or mobile positions for the male asylum seeker? Teaching 'Danish sexual morals' at asylum centres.

This article investigates how gender and sexuality are mobilized as symbolic values within Danish immigration politics, focusing on the compulsory teaching of so-called “Danish sexual morals” introduced in asylum centres from 2017. Rooted in Denmark’s national self-perception of exceptional tolerance—especially regarding gender and sexuality—this teaching aims to prevent sexual violence by educating asylum seekers in sexual conduct, but simultaneously draws boundaries between “insiders” and “outsiders,” often stereotyping male asylum seekers as sexually dangerous. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and analysis of classroom interactions at a Danish asylum centre, the study reveals how teachers both reproduce and challenge these stereotypes, while male asylum-seeking students resist and negotiate their ascribed positions through personal narratives and collaborative responses. The article highlights the paradox of promoting Danish sexual exceptionalism as a national value while enforcing moral checkpoints that control migrants, and it underscores the dynamic interplay of control and resistance at micro- and macro-levels in immigration contexts.