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From Refugee to Employee: Work Integration in Rural Denmark Martin Ledstrup and Marie Larsen

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From Refugee to Employee: Work Integration in Rural Denmark Martin Ledstrup and Marie Larsen 14 Economies FMR 58 www.fmreview.org/economies June 2018 From refugee to employee: work integration in rural Denmark Martin Ledstrup and Marie Larsen The launch of Red Cross Denmark’s Fast Track programme, which focuses on early refugee employment, offers an opportunity to explore the relationship between local employment of refugees and the sustainability of rural life. Since 2015 Denmark has turned the for example, by providing translation of a employment of refugees into a national refugee’s documentation into Danish – to strategy. Through a tripartite agreement with understand the educational background of the Confederation of Danish Employers and a particular refugee. Local Government Denmark (the union of Many of these initiatives are tied together municipalities) this reconfiguration of thinking by a newly launched, practice-oriented and about integration has reverberated throughout state-initiated programme of employment municipal and corporate Denmark. education, the ‘Integrationsgrund- suddannelse’ (IGU), or ‘basic integration education’, which – through a combination of formal schooling and practical internships – is aimed specifically at aligning competencies of refugees with demand in the Danish labour market. But while the IGU is oriented towards recognised refugees, the new Red Cross initiative begins in the asylum phase. The Fast Track programme The Fast Track programme is an effort to facilitate early access to the local labour market for refugees while they are still in the asylum phase, and it has been tested and implemented in five Danish municipalities between 2015 and 2017. Normally refugees UNHCR/William Ek Uvelius in Denmark are distributed across its 98 The ‘Me and My Friendly Neighbour’ photographic exhibition on municipalities, in effect detaching the locality World Refugee Day in Copenhagen, Denmark, telling stories of of where they claimed asylum from the refugees and Danes who have become close friends. locality where they come to live as refugees. For example, a major initiative was set With Fast Track, however, the asylum seeker up by the eight municipalities of Copenhagen signs up for the programme at a Danish Red to establish refugee internships, for which Cross-run asylum centre and the immigration promotional posters have been distributed authority places the participant, if granted around the capital. Employment initiatives refugee status, in the local community in aimed at refugees have also been established in which they have claimed asylum. When the larger companies such as IBM, Microsoft, asylum seeker is not someone in transit but Danfoss, Grundfoss, Arriva and NCC. In has the potential to remain as a refugee, it addition, in order to facilitate quicker naturally motivates both local people and assessment of refugees’ work competence, refugees to invest in their mutual relations. the government has sponsored a phone Asylum seekers prepare for Fast Track by hotline to provide assistance to municipal undertaking a skills assessment. The eight- authorities, in particular to help employees – week Fast Track programme then provides Economies 15 FMR 58 June 2018 www.fmreview.org/economies participants with a hands-on introduction to growing conversation about the depopulation Danish culture, language skills, vocational of rural Denmark, including its island training and potential local internships, communities. The island of Bornholm, for techniques for job search, information about instance, has lost nearly 20% of its population local work culture, network building and since 1965. The islands of Samsø, Ærø, Læsø sustaining motivation. Taken together, these and the Association of Danish Small Islands represent a holistic effort to link employment have therefore actively been promoting integration and local belonging. Throughout themselves as locations that are particularly the months of waiting in asylum centres, this suitable for asylum seekers and refugees. facilitates a crucial sense of purpose. The In March 2018 the Fast Track programme new resident might have a job or internship began on Bornholm, a socio-economically to continue when moving into the local vulnerable island of 40,000 inhabitants, located community, thus making the transition from far away from urban Denmark, in the Baltic asylum seeker to refugee more a continuous Sea. Bornholm’s vulnerability is due not least process than a series of new beginnings. to depopulation and lack of skilled labour. Previously, municipalities often reported Our interviews on the islands of Bornholm that refugees arrived with unrealistic and Samsø, conducted in 2016 and 2017, expectations about housing and employment presented three main findings that identify the opportunities. But according to feedback challenges that lie ahead. While the interviews from both municipalities and refugees, we were conducted in light of the Fast Track have found that refugees who have been initiative, they concentrated more generally on through the Fast Track programme are asking about the encounter between refugees, less disappointed and more realistic, as integration, and the local labour market. well as, generally speaking, less confused, The first and most often repeated more motivated and altogether more challenge, perhaps unsurprisingly, is confident in beginning their life in a locality language; although having sufficient that is already well known to them. Danish to function in the workplace is Of the 70 participants over these two key to stable employment for refugees, years who were granted refugee status, continuous language development is needed 61% are now self-supporting, 9% have for career advancement as well as to extend moved to other municipalities for various interactions beyond the context of work. reasons, 4% are on maternity leave, and The second challenge relates to the 26% have continued internships that are uncertainty around whether refugees preparing them for mainstream jobs. will stay in the local community after the mandatory three-year placement period. For Implementation in rural and island the local municipality, there is an important communities difference between asylum seekers and In 2015 a team of anthropologists from the refugees. While the state is responsible for University of Copenhagen concluded research all expenses connected with asylum seekers, on the encounters between asylum centres those expenses connected with refugees are and rural societies.1 They found anxieties the responsibility of local municipalities. about crime and declining house prices, but In interviews with representatives from the at the same time these familiar concerns municipality of Samsø, the most important were entangled with a surprising local question raised was rooted in deeper optimism. In rural areas where asylum centres concerns about how local investment in successfully form part of the social fabric, refugee employment can at the same time be alongside nurseries, schools, supermarkets part of the struggle against depopulation. and local associations, they were seen as a Thirdly, the type and size of workplaces much-needed boost to local sustainability. are significant in terms of facilitating Changes in Denmark’s approach to refugee integration. Typically, larger workplaces are employment are taking place as part of a able to assign refugee employment to certain 16 Economies FMR 58 www.fmreview.org/economies June 2018 employees, often on a voluntary basis, as refugee employment in Denmark. This means a specialised task within the organisation. that the islands and what we can learn from Smaller workplaces obviously do not have them do not form part of discussions around the same organisational means to work with the question of integration. In addition, stable refugees. In addition, there is an acute demand employment and successful integration are for skilled labour but not for unskilled labour. often assumed in statistics to be mutually This means that when refugees come as dependent but we know nearly nothing about skilled workers, they play a crucial role in whether and how this connection unfolds local sustainability, but when refugees search in daily life. The Fast Track programme for unskilled jobs they compete with local offers an opportunity to explore just that. Danes. More research is needed, however, in order to understand more fully the resulting Martin Ledstrup [email protected] perspectives of locals and refugees. Postdoctoral researcher, Centre for Contemporary A municipality that performs statistically Middle East Studies, University of Southern better in terms of including refugees in the Denmark www.sdu.dk/en/ labour market is also seen as a success with regard to integration. But because rural Marie Larsen [email protected] refugee populations are often too small for Developmental consultant, Danish Red Cross statistical research, they are often not included http://bit.ly/DanishRedCross-asylum in surveys. For instance, while the island 1. Larsen B R, Whyte Z and Fog Olwig K (2015) Den nye municipalities of Samsø and Ærø have been landbefolkning: Asylcentrenes betydning og konsekvens for lokale fællesskaber i danske landdistrikter, Institut for Antropologi, deeply engaged with and affected by refugees, Københavns Universitet they are not included on comparative maps of http://bit.ly/Larsen-Whyte-Olwig-2015 Integrating refugee doctors into host health-care systems Shahla Namak, Fatin Sahhar, Sarah Kureshi, Fadya El Rayess and Ranit Mishori Refugee doctors face a number of barriers to practising medicine, despite
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