The parts of Denmark today known as ghettos have emerged as a consequence of increasing numbers of immigrants and refugees arriving to the country throughout the years. Big building blocks, that are today one of the characteristics of the Danish ghetto areas, were built in the sixties and were intended for middle-class families, that rather decided to move to villas, therefore leaving the big blocks empty. During the 80s when the numbers of immigrants, refugees and so-called “guest workers” began to increase, the municipalities decided to place them in the remaining empty apartments, hence creating multi-ethnic neighbourhoods. Some years after, at the beginning of 2000s the proclaimed ghetto areas became one of the prevalent subjects in the Danish government, and the trend continues to this day.

In 2010, the first ghetto list including the criteria an area needs to meet in order to be listed as a ghetto was published. The list has since been published annually. 2018 marks the year when the ghetto plan was published, listing all the transformations these areas need to be faced with the aim of increased integration of their residents. Some of these are reselling or demolition of buildings, more control over the background of people moving into the area, more police presence, and changes in student composition in local schools.

The requirements for the ghetto areas and the above-listed adjustments, by many perceived as discriminatory and unfair, will affect many people’s lives in the upcoming years. Vollsmose, as one of the most infamous areas in Denmark, is one of the ghettos that is included in the ghetto plan and is used as a central case for this study. Inspired by the initiatives made by the residents, this paper researches different ways Vollsmose is perceived by internal actors – its residents – and the rest of the Danish society that learns about the area solely through the media. With the help of Foucauldian discourse analysis, the Propaganda model By Herman and Chomsky and finally labelling theory, this thesis engages with finding out in what ways do Vollsmose’s residents obtain certain identity given to them by the society and what the consequences of these labels are. Combining the data gathered from questionnaires answered by the residents together with two types of media (national and local) and use of both quantitative and qualitative methods allows this research to present the overall visualisation of the differences from different perspectives.

As the results of this research show, generalisation and discrimination of people based on their home address is an obvious obstacle for further integration. Worse yet, the results show that the generalisation trend found among external actors does not hold water, since the ideas it relies on do not resemble the reality of people living in Vollsmose. Taken this into consideration, the very strong power hierarchy between internal and external actors here acts as a vast obstacle in the process of integration of the area into the rest of the society, since the media consumed by the vast majority tends to have a considerably more negative coverage of the area. Finally, the research demonstrates the residents’ overall doubtfulness of the ghetto plan’s efficiency when it comes to solving social problems found in the ghetto areas of Denmark.