Denmark: employment and immigrants

A new study shows that the best way for immigrants to find a job is to be willing to integrate: learn the local language and have contact with the local people. They must need to actively look for a job and not just be willling to work.

Foreigners on the hunt for their first job in Denmark are faced with deflating reality: employers place most weight on work experience from another Danish company, according a study from SFI - The Danish National Institute of Social Research.

The SFI report, which studied how people with non-Western origins faired in the labour market, also named language skills and a social network as important tools for breaking down the barrier to employment.

'We were surprised that education and experience from abroad did not make it easier to find a job in Denmark,' said study leader Anders Rosendahl to business daily Idag. 'Education and experience have to be Danish if you want to increase your chances of finding a job.'

After looking at the reasons why some immigrants move off social benefits and into work, the
SFI study found that the group that remained unemployed blamed their situation on poor health or companies' preference for hiring Danes.

'Even though they haven't been discriminated against, they are convinced that Danish companies prefer Danes. That prevents them from looking for jobs,' Rosendahl said.

He suggests that companies clearly indicate that they do not discriminate. 'That shouldn't be necessary, but our study shows that it is.'

The study characterised immigrants that found work into two groups: those who wrote mounds of applications and were persistent in following up, and those who were willing, but not necessarily able due to their lack of knowledge of how the job market works.

The willing most often find work through municipal job placement programmes, which rely on the co-operation of companies that place an importance on social responsibility.

'There are a lot of the 'willing' in the group that never find work. If companies want to help out with this important task, they can take on workers on special conditions,' Rosendal said.
Despite record low unemployment, nearly a fourth of all 18-64 year olds with a non-Western heritage received temporary social benefits for most of 2003. Nearly 83 percent were still jobless in 2004.

Portrait of an employed immigrant
-----------------------------------------
The SFI study found that employed immigrants had the following characteristics:
- In good health
- Spouse born in Denmark
- Spouse also employed
- Good Danish skills
- Job experience in Denmark
- Had employment insurance
- Social network with links to the job market
- Contact with ethnic Danes
- Not an asylum seeker or related to one
- Descendant of immigrants rather an immigrant
- Been in Denmark for several years
- Male
- Under 35

Source: Jyllands-Posten (English)