Returning Foreign Fighters to Denmark & Sweden: The Enemies of the State?

Sammanfattning: Denmark and Sweden, as the rest of Europe, face a dilemma of whether to repatriate their citizens who travelled to the so-called Islamic State, from the wretched refugee camps in Syria and Iraq after its fall, and how to deal with those already returned. This thesis examines the two countries’ policy-approaches and discourses to the issue of foreign fighters (FF’s) through a comparative case study, mainly focusing on Denmark, and empirical analysis of statements on FF’s from key political actors, using the social scientific method of critical discourse analysis. Moreover, it theoretically examines how securitization processes, national imageries, as well as exercises of governmentality, as a response to public fears and ontological insecurities, can explain underlying mechanisms for, especially the Danish governments’ approaches. The main finding was that Denmark has had a stronger political focus and approach to FF’s than Sweden, visible in more and harsher security measures, as well as stronger discourses. These have implicated an ‘othering’ and suppressing of the rights of the perceived ‘internal enemy’ in Denmark, the FF’s, using emotional appeals and realist war-narratives. This can finally be interpreted as an attempt to reinforce the power of the political establishment and the fantasy of a ‘stable’ Danish identity.