Living in Denmark: What You Need to Know Before You Move
The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (Akademikerne), the umbrella organisation for 28 unions, now calls for a new national strategy in order to recruit more international talent to Denmark.
“We have to recognize Denmark currently is not among the preferred countries of international talent. We must therefore significantly increase our recruitment efforts,” Lisbeth Lintz, head of the organisation, said in a press release.
“But if we are to be able to do that, we have to ensure that we don’t have problems with social dumping and a lack of integration at the same time. Otherwise, I cannot imagine that there will be political support for increasing international recruitment.”
According to the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations only 35 percent of internationals who studied in Denmark are working in the country two years after graduation.
That is, according to the organisation, a waste of talent.
And the umbrella organisation, which represents about 480.000 members spanning across 28 member organisations, now warns that Denmark will suffer in the increasing competition for international talent with other European countries if serious actions are not taken.
Top company warns too
A similar warning – that Denmark will suffer in the future battle for international talent – came from the Danish hearing healthcare giant Demant in June.
https://cphpost.dk/2023-07-06/news/denmark-about-to-lose-future-battle-major-organisation-warns/
Denmark agains finds itself in the bottom tier of the annual InterNations survey rating ease of living abroad
Denmark has never fared particularly well in the Expat Insider survey conducted annually by InterNations, a worldwide community with 4.8 million members and counting – and 2023 is no exception.
Out of the 53 assessed countries, it finished a lowly 41st.
Hard to make local friends
The survey asks expats a wide range of questions split into five indices: Quality of Life, Ease of Settling In, Working Abroad, Personal Finance, and the ‘Expat Essentials Index’ – aspects such as housing, administration, language and digital life.
And once again, Denmark is let down by its scores for Personal Finance (46th) and Ease of Settling In (51st). Indeed, in the latter it ranked last in the sub-category Finding Friends – a problem often cited by internationals living here.
As many as 66 percent say it is difficult to make local friends (global average: 36 percent).
Furthermore, 38 percent rate their social life negatively (25), 35 percent struggle with getting used to the local culture (18), and 29 percent do not feel at home (20).
Two top tens across five indices
However, while Denmark ranked in the bottom ten for two of the indices, it squeezed into the top ten for Working Abroad (6) and Quality of Life (10).
In the workplace 89 percent are happy with the state of the economy (global average: 62), working hours (80 vs 64), encouragement of creativity (67 vs 51), promotion of independent work (77 vs 46) and support of flexibility (83 vs 60).
Poor scores for Housing (45), which expats generally agree is hard to find and too expensive.
In general, 56 percent are unhappy with the cost of living, compared to 35 percent globally.