“These children are us”— Historical Perspectives on the Repatriation and Integration of Scandinavian ISIS Children

The repatriation of Scandinavian mothers and their children born under the Islamic State in Syria (ISIS) is a central unresolved societal and political concern in Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

Political arguments for and against their repatriation frame the children in terms of terrorism, radicalization, and foreignness. Historical perspectives remain absent as-of-yet.

While not identical, the political responses to children born to German soldiers in occupied Denmark and Norway, so-called children born of war (CBOW), reflect similar concerns.

The proposed project will analyse and theorize the historical connections between the post-WWII and post-Syrian civil war approaches to the integration and repatriation of Scandinavia’s ‘enemy children’ in three interrelated studies.Each study works with a different methodological approach to analyse a specific comparative aspect in the conditions of children born to German soldiers and IS foreign fighters.

Study 1 will conduct a qualitative analysis of interviews to investigate how Danish German children born during WWII experienced integration in the past compared to Swedish and Danish families related to children born in IS territory today.

Study 2 will analyse NGO archives to examine historical patterns between the repatriation attempts of displaced CBOW to Scandinavia in the post-war decade and of IS children.

Study 3 will carry out a comparative discourse analysis of Scandinavian media representations in the late 1940s and 2010s to trace the changing racial and gendered frames used to include or exclude these children from society.The expected results will not only close a research gap between CBOW studies and emerging ISIS scholarship but also develop significant societal impact.

Historical perspectives will create more differentiated rationales for repatriating Scandinavian IS children and knowledge about how enemy children have been integrated in the past will improve future integration measures.