In March 2002, the Danish government issued new proposals for improving the integration of immigrants and refugees, based on the view that the best way towards successful integration is through the labour market. Newly-arrived refugees and immigrants should be given practical work experience in enterprises as soon as possible and Danish language teaching should be provided at the workplace. Moreover, a special introductory starting wage should be paid when the people concerned start ordinary jobs. The social partners disagree with various parts of the proposal.
On 5 March 2002, the coalition government of the Liberal Party (Venstre) and Conservative People's Party (Konservative Folkeparti) presented a new plan for the labour market integration of non-EU immigrants and refugees, seeking to ensure that more people from these groups find employment at an early stage. The plan is entitled 'Towards a new integration policy' ('På vej mod en ny integrationspolitik'). Presenting the proposal, the Minister for Employment stated that there are currently too many bureaucratic rules which stand in the way of effective integration. The way to successful integration is through the labour market, he stated, and it is important to make the best possible use of all available resources.
The proposal will be discussed in a quadripartite forum, bringing together the government with the Confederation of Danish Trade Unions (Landsorganisationen i Danmark, LO), the Danish Employers' Confederation (Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening, DA) and the local authorities (municipalities and counties). It will form part of the government's action plan on 'More people in employment' which will be presented in autumn 2002.
The main elements of the integration proposal are to:
- get newly arrived immigrants into employment as quickly as possible;
- offer effective teaching in the Danish language; and
- make better use of the qualifications of newly arrived immigrants.
Work experience and special introductory wage
According to the proposal, it is important to get immigrants into employment in the private or public sector as quickly as possible. Newly-arrived non-EU foreign nationals should therefore be given the possibility of work experience in an enterprise for a period of up to 12 months. The enterprise will have a duty to offer the person concerned a general introduction to work and vocational training. During the work experience period, the people concerned will receive a special allowance corresponding to the benefit to which they would otherwise be entitled - typically social assistance.
The government further proposes that 'citizens who find it difficult to obtain a foothold on the labour market should during the introduction phase be employed at a special starting wage.' Although this proposal is contained in the plan for labour market integration of foreign nationals, the word 'citizens'- and not only new citizens or immigrants - must be taken to mean that this proposal should be extended to apply to all people with difficulties in obtaining ordinary employment. The government calls upon the social partners to come up with their own proposal in this area. The government itself points to two possibilities:
- ordinary employment for a period of up to 12 months on the minimum wage fixed by collective agreement without any of the supplements arising from local agreements; or
- apprenticeship wages for a maximum period of 12 months.
Flexible language teaching
An important element in successful integration is learning the Danish language. However, it is proposed that inability to speak Danish should not be an obstacle to newly-arrived people's access to the labour market. Teaching in Danish should follow the job and it should therefore be possible to offer language teaching at the workplace. According to the proposal, it is not a good idea for immigrants to have to learn Danish for three years before they can find a job. If there is no qualified language teacher of immigrants in a particular municipality, school teachers could take over. It is necessary to break the monopoly of the language schools in order to create a more flexible scheme, it is stated. Deductions will be made from their integration allowance if a person fails to participate in the Danish lessons.
Rewarding good performance
The proposal provides a mix of 'reward and punishment' in connection with the integration of immigrants and refugees. Successful integration will be rewarded: the government will thus make it possible for immigrants to obtain a permanent residence permit after five years instead of the normal period of seven years if an individual has made a successful effort to be integrated into Danish society and is self-supporting. The government will also make it possible for asylum-seekers with special qualifications to take on an ordinary job. This will apply, for instance, to highly-qualified information technology engineers, who may access the labour market directly and for whom there is a strong demand, says the government.
The rules concerning the system of providing 'pocket money' for asylum-seekers will be changed. Asylum-seekers will have a duty to work, either at their asylum centre or in local enterprises outside. It is proposed to make payment of 'pocket money' dependent upon compliance with the duty to work.
The municipal authorities will also be rewarded or punished in connection with effective integration. Currently, the state reimburses the municipalities expenses for the integration of newly-arrived foreign nationals for the first three years. After three years, the municipal authorities must themselves pay a larger share of the costs of social assistance, vocational training and language teaching, but they receive a flat-rate transitional subsidy for each person for a further period of three years. It is proposed that this transitional subsidy to the municipalities should be changed. Instead, the money should be used to rewards those municipalities which have managed to get the new citizens into employment or work-experience training. As a starting point, the municipalities should, as a maximum, receive a subsidy to offer Danish language courses for three years to each new citizen, and the municipalities should be rewarded for measurable progress in this language teaching.
Finally, the qualifications and competences which the new citizens bring with them should be clarified in the form of work tests. This area will be formalised so that a 'merit system' can be established. The Centre for Assessment of Foreign Qualifications (Center for Vurdering af Udenlandske Uddannelser, CVUU) will be authorised to make binding decisions concerning recognition of foreign qualifications in a number of cases.
Commentary
The government's proposal follows the lines of the 'immigration package' presented by a governmental 'think tank' in early 2002, which included a proposal to introduce rules for immigrants' entitlement to social assistance (DK0202101N). According to the proposed new rules, entitlement to the full rate of social assistance would not be achieved until a person had been in Denmark for seven years. In several respects, the new proposal is also in line with the integration proposal which LO and DA presented at around the same time. (DK0201166F).
The main difference is that the LO/DA proposal does not take a firm position as to the immigrants' allowance in the form of wage or other income during the work introduction phase. The government proposes a minimum wage for up to 12 months. This proposal has been rejected by both LO and DA, along with the Organisation of Managerial Staff and Executives (Ledernes Hovedorganisation, LH). Both LO and LH believe that it is not acceptable to let new employees work for up to one year on a contractual minimum wage which is substantially lower than the actual hourly wage paid at the workplace. There is no statutory minimum wage in Denmark. The minimum wage is fixed solely by industry-level collective agreements and thus varies from one sector to another. The actual wage is based on local agreement in most parts of the private sector and there are hardly any groups who are paid the sectoral minimum rate. It is not unlawful to pay less than the minimum rate, as the minimum rate applies only in sectors covered by a collective agreement.
LH has recently carried out a study among managers which found that the level of the minimum wage has no influence on the decision to recruit newly-arrived foreigners (81% of 1,100 managers interviewed said that they did not at all take the minimum wage level into account). DA believes that the government proposal on a minimum wage for new entrants should be withdrawn, as it represents an intervention in collective agreements. Furthermore, it is not even a task for LO and DA to discuss a starting wage - this has to be left to the lower-level parties to collective agreements. DA has long wished to have Danish language teaching transferred to the workplace and thus welcomes this part of the government proposal.
The municipal authorities have expressed their surprise in relation to the proposed work experience scheme. Such a scheme already exists in the form of vocational training combined with social assistance - ie without any costs for the enterprise and without any obligation for the enterprise to recruit the trainee after the training period. LO finds that the government initiative lacks ambition and some managers in the municipalities go further than that. They argue that it would require more or less a revolution to get all new refugees into employment quickly and also a completely different understanding on the part of enterprises, organisations and the public employment services – and thus the entire of society. (Carsten Jørgensen, FAOS)