Michael de Laine

By Michael de Laine, the Copenhagen Voice, 3 June 2009

Non-Western immigration rising but is showing a new pattern, with fewer family reunifications and more immigrants coming for employment or education, new research shows.

Immigration from non-Western countries is rising sharply, but it is showing a new pattern, with fewer family reunifications and more immigrants coming for employment or education, according to new research published by the Rockwool Foundation Research Unit in a Danish-language note, ‘Færre familiesammenførte - flere beskæftigelsesindvandrere’.

“Contrary to the general perception, more and more immigrants are coming in Denmark at the present time - also from poor countries,” the research unit writes in the note. “Despite the tightening of the aliens policy in recent years, more immigrants from non-Western came to Denmark in 2008 than in 2000 - almost 28,000 in 2008 compared with almost 22,000 in 2000.”

Tightening the aliens policy through the affiliation requirement and the 24-year rule, has not resulted in a permanent reduction in the number of non-Western immigrants coming to Denmark.

But the reforms have resulted in a pronounced change in who migrates to Denmark and why. Before the aliens law was tightened in 2000, more than half of the new immigrants came through family reunification with someone already living in Denmark. Today, that applies to only 10% of newly arrived non-Western foreigners, the research unit says.

While the number of family reunifications has fallen sharply, there has been a sharp rise in the number of people coming to Denmark for a job or education - which has also been stimulated to some extent by the authorities.

“In 2008, more than eight out of ten immigrants came to Denmark to work or get an education,” the Rockwool Foundation Research Unit says. “And that change in the basis for their stay in Denmark is not incidental - it can be ascribed to a large degree to changes in the Danish aliens policy in 2000 and especially in 2002.”

The research unit says the changed pattern will by itself increase the extent to which immigrants are in employment - something that has already made itself felt. Not surprisingly, people who have been granted residents permits because they want to work or get an education have better employment prospects than refugees or people coming for family reunification.

“Our research also shows that the special introductory allowance - the low cash benefit for new arrivals - means that more refugees get work than previously,” the research unit says. “But this improved employment situation is not without costs. The special introductory allowance also generates poverty: if one lives only on the special introductory allowance it is very hard to pay for even the most basic staple commodities even if everything is bought at discount shops.”

Further, the study shows that well-educated foreigners choose to go to Sweden rather than Denmark - but that has been the situation since the 1990s, before the Danish aliens policy was tightened, the research unit said.

“The tightened immigration rules have had drastic consequences,” says Torben Tranæs, head of research at the Rockwool Foundation Research Unit. “The large fall in family reunifications masks another change: young people with an immigrant background get married at a sharply higher age than they did just a few years ago. On the other hand, they get an education to a greater extent, and one can say that the ongoing adaptation process has been speeded up quite a bit. Whether one can call this a helping hand, motivated modernisation or forced adjustment depends on one’s political temperament.”

Two of the requirements foreigners meet are the affiliation requirement and the 24-year rule.

Introduced in 2000, the affiliation requirement means that a person living in Denmark and a foreigner must together have greater affiliation with Denmark than to the foreigner’s home country if they are to be allowed family reunification.

The 24-year rule, from 2002, means that is first possible to have family reunification with a foreign spouse when both have reached the age of 24.

“The consequence of the new policy has been that the age of marriage for women with an immigrant background has risen sharply in the course of a few years towards the behaviour of Danish women,” says Marie Louise Schultz-Nielsen, a researcher at the Rockwool Foundation Research Unit.

Only 5% of Danish women are married at the age of 23. A similar pattern is seen among men.

Click here to read the Danish-language note from the Rockwool Foundation Research Unit, ‘Færre familiesammenførte - flere beskæftigelsesindvandrere’.