This new study by Rockwool Foundation Research finds that reducing social support benefits for refugee newcomers – in other words, attaching their right to full benefits to their length of stay in the country and their involvement in the labour market - only has a positive influence on their employment rate when there is also high demand for unskilled labour.

Reducing this social support, the study finds, can even have a negative impact on refugee newcomers' employment and job stability in the long term in areas where labour demand is low. The study confirms earlier findings (among them those by Roslin and Vejlin in 2007 and Rockwool Foundation and University College London in 2019) that a reduction in benefits mainly increases poverty rates and can lead to higher crime rates among recipients.

Becoming self-sufficient is an important part of the integration of migrants and refugees. In Denmark, those with a migration background (and often with refugee status) from countries in the Middle East and Africa have generally been much less attached to the labour market than native Danes and EU mobile citizens, and more reliant on social benefits (which are often more generous in Scandinavian countries in compared European countries). In particular, women who migrated to Denmark from so-called 'non-western countries' have a lower employment rate than that of native Danish women.

Lower benefits for refugees were introduced for the first time in 2002, before being increased after 10 years and then reintroduced in 2015. Currently, the amount granted to refugees is roughly half of that given to other recipients, with extra benefits such as child support, disability pension and pension reduced according to length of stay. The stated aim behind these reductions is to encourage people to find employment as soon as possible. Early evaluations contained in the same study showed that this does happen in the short term, but only for men: there is no change among women. Further, the study found that it can result in increased poverty, particularly for families and children.