ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the structural and discursive factors which influence the continuity of accommodating veiling policies despite heavy populist challengefor restrictions. Focusing on specific policy decisions in Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands, it discusses both institutional arrangements and frames of references within these three countries which are similar in regard to the major independent variable, the strength of populist parties proposing an anti-veiling agenda. The chapter analyses how and why accommodating policies stayed in place, that is what the institutional and discursive limits of populist parties. The year 2004 was a remarkable year in the history of policing the headscarf. It was the year the French law banning any ostensible religious symbols in publicschools was passed. In Denmark, politicization of the headscarf issue was part of an overall immigration debate, which intensified during the 1990s. The opposition parties on the right demanded a more restrictive legislation and the Social-Liberal leftist government defended the relatively liberal Danish approach to immigration.
