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14 June 2021

Descendants of immigrants from Muslim countries are very similar to ethnic Danes

Title

This recently-published analysis report concludes that similarities between people of Danish origin and descendants from immigrants of Muslim countries* to Denmark have been increasing steadily since the beginning of the 1990s. The vast majority of these descendants now behave like the majority of Danes.

The analysis finds that 80-90% of the groups examined are similar when it comes to income, tax payments, receipt of social benefits and graduation grades from primary school. The remaining 10-20% are different, which leads to differences in overall (classic) averages.

Presenting statistics

If one is to focus only upon the differences in the average numbers without further examining the distribution of the people behind them, it becomes easy to overestimate the number of people with integration 'problems' among the descendant groups. Therefore, states the report, it is important for debates on integration in Denmark to specify how many individuals are included in each group, rather than looking only at the overall group findings.

In order to avoid the risk of misrepresenting such figures, this analysis focused on the overlap of the groups, and the similarities between the individuals within them. The resulting charts show a much more positive image of minority groups in Denmark.

Analysis findings

The report focuses on the following areas:

  • Yearly income;
  • Yearly tax payments;
  • Grades given at graduation from primary school (Danish language);
  • Weeks per year spent in receipt of welfare benefits (parental leave, study grants and sickness excluded).

Looking only at the classic average across the findings, descendants from Muslim countries could be said to pay 47% less tax, to receive 53% more welfare benefits, to earn 39% less and to graduate with grades 1.4% lower than ethnic Danes.

In fact, only 8% of descendants of immigrants from Muslim countries actually receive welfare benefits more often (than ethnic Danes), and taking into account the distribution of individuals within the examined groups, 77% of descendants do not receive any benefits while 87% of them follow exactly the same pattern as ethnic Danes. Comparison of income of those aged 35 - 40, in Northern Jutland and the rest of Denmark, shows a similar picture: there is a 91% overlap between immigrant descendant and native residents.

Find out more about the analysis here.

*The analysis does not use the definition from Statistics Denmark, which is: "Persons born in Denmark where none of the parents are both Danish citizens and born in Denmark. If there is no information about any of the parents and the person has foreign citizenship the person is also considered a descendant". The authors wanted to include persons with one parent who has roots abroad but obtained Danish citizenship, and one foreign parent. Therefore, their criteria in this respect are: "Persons who are born in Denmark and has at least one parent who has migrated from a country where minimum 50% define themselves as Muslims". Using the definition from Statistics Denmark, the group was 58,849, whereas the definition used by the authors bring the number up to 128,633 (2020). However, the analysis also tries out the findings with both definitions and finds that there is only a very small difference.

Efterkommeranalyse KRAKA
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Details

Authors
Thomas Damsgaard Tørsløv, Villiam Bo Bresler, Alexandro Mastrandrea, Annasofie Marckstrøm Olesen
Geographic area
Denmark
Original source
Posted by
Michala Clante Bendixen
Country Coordinator

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