The paper presents the case of international higher education in Denmark from 1999 to recent political moves to limit international student recruitment. Building on concepts adopted from theories on nationalism, the authors trace the origins of an anti-internationalisation discourse to the 2000s. An analysis of documents produced by universities, politicians and national media reveals continuity in two key areas. First, the language debate of 2007-9 draws attention to the growing use of English in HE. Second, a welfare nationalist discourse can be traced back to a 2013 EJC verdict, which confirmed EU citizens' rights to Danish student grants.