Tackling barriers in the Nordic labour market: “Immigrants want to work”
Integration, Arbete
21 jan 2025
While Nordic countries face labour shortages, a vast, untapped workforce of immigrants already lives within their borders and struggles to access the labour market. Muneeza Rosendahl from the Danish NGO Lige Adgang says civil society has a big role to play in changing structures, alleviating bias, and seeing people as individuals. All of which can help immigrants get jobs.
My message to policymakers is very simple: people want to work! Immigrants want to contribute to society. But they need the right to do so.
As Director of the Danish NGO Lige Adgang, Muneeza Rosendahl works to create an inclusive labour market for everyone facing barriers related to gender, ethnicity, language, religion, or professional skills.
She says Danish politicians emphasise the need to attract international labour while forgetting that a potential international labour force is already present in the country.
– We need to become better at using the talent and resources that we have available to us. I presume this is true for other Nordic countries as well.
The untapped workforce: Guest workers and discouraged refugees
Speaking at the conference “How can the Nordic countries better promote labour market integration among migrant mothers and fathers?” in Stockholm in December 2024, Muneeza Rosendahl highlights that we often focus on individual factors hindering people’s access to the labour market, while overlooking the structural barriers that our Nordic societies maintain.
Some of the structural barriers have roots in history that no longer fit modern society. Geographically, we have placed people in areas where they have formed subcultures, and not everyone has the right to work. There is a tradition to put traumatised refugees on early retirement or to tell them that they cannot or should not work despite their expressing a desire to do so.
I’ve heard stories about individuals in asylum centres who, a week after arriving, say ‘I want to get a job; I want to work.’ However, when you return and speak to the same individuals six months later, they feel they cannot work because they have been mentally broken down.
The tendency to refer to immigrants as “guest workers” has also been detrimental to integration in Denmark, as the term implies they will eventually leave the country, even though many wish to stay.
Bias, names, and language keep immigrants out of higher-paying jobs
Muneeza Rosendahl states that not all obstacles to accessing the Danish labour market are structural. For instance, in some countries, women do not view themselves as part of the workforce. Personal trauma can also contribute to difficulties in learning the language, which in turn may lead to isolation and mistrust of the authorities.
At the same time, bias and prejudice play a big role. According to Muneeza Rosendahl, this is particularly evident for immigrants from countries with predominantly Muslim populations. Individuals with Muslim-sounding names often need to submit significantly more job applications compared to those with native-sounding names.
– For example, there is a noticeable difference between having a Syrian background and a Ukrainian background.
Language barriers frequently hinder access to higher-paying jobs requiring advanced skills, as the native language is often a prerequisite, even though most Nordics speak good English. According to Rosendahl, the goal should be to achieve immigrant representation across all levels of the labour market, which is not the case today.
In Denmark, immigrants are over-represented in the lowest-paying jobs and under-represented higher up in the hierarchy.
Mentors see individuals, where the system sees a group
As an NGO active in the field, Lige Adgang has observed that mentorship is an effective way to help immigrants access the labour market. When individuals are recognised for their unique circumstances, it becomes much easier to navigate potential barriers related to social norms, expectations, and workplace culture.
– Someone working as a mentor on a voluntary basis can help immigrants overcome these barriers. It makes a huge difference when we recognise individuals for their unique talents, skills, and needs.
According to Muneeza Rosendahl, NGOs such as Lige Adgang can be highly effective in reaching immigrants who, for various reasons, may distrust government organisations or risk being overlooked by the authorities.
– When we consider the welfare system, we tend to think that everybody needs to fit into the same box. However, we need to take an intersectional approach.
Rosendahl points out that factors like age, parenthood, gender, and cultural background play a crucial role but are not sufficiently addressed by the authorities. Just as the needs of the native population are diverse, immigrants are not a homogeneous group either.
If we aim to treat everyone equally, we must treat different people differently.
