At the end of October, all that remained of the storm that swept through the campus of Roskilde University (RUC), located about 30 kilometers west of Copenhagen, were some posters on the walls. In black letters on a red background, they pleaded: “Bangladeshi students, please don’t leave us alone with the Danes,” “You are welcome here.” This message of support left Akter (he did not give his last name), a 26-year-old master’s student in development and international studies, unmoved. “For me, Denmark was a country of equality, justice and fairness, but that’s no longer the case,” he said bitterly.

Like Akter, just over 1,000 students from Bangladesh who had enrolled in Danish universities found themselves caught up in a major controversy at the start of fall, with RUC at its center. Fueled by the far right and the ruling Social Democrats, the debate led to the resignation of the university’s board chair and the closure of a master’s program, while other institutions announced changes to their admission rules for foreign students.

To put things in context: Social Democratic leader Mette Frederiksen has led the government since 2019 and was re-elected in 2022 after campaigning on an ultra-restrictive immigration policy, closely aligned with the agenda of the far-right Danish People’s Party (DF), which collapsed in the polls, winning only 2.6% of the vote.

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