It has been 13 years since the employment rate for so-called "non-Western" migrants has been as high in Denmark as it is now. Today, 55.8% of these migrants are working, and the rise is being explained by the increased activity of women in the labour market.

A new analysis from Arbejderbevægelsens Erhvervsråd concludes that the employment rate for non-Western migrants in Denmark is higher now than in was before the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. This is surprising, as many people with a Middle Eastern or African background in Denmark lost their jobs due to coronavirus lockdowns. It is also surprising in that these developments are very different from developments that followed the financial crisis in 2008, when it took ten years for non-Western migrants to reach the same level of employment they had achieved before that particular crisis. This latest analysis was presented on the front page of the largest business news publication in Denmark, Børsen.

Number of non-Western immigrants in employment (15-64 years old)

A rise in employment was found to have occurred in 18 of 19 job sectors, with the biggest changes by percentage seen in the building and culture & leisure sectors. The largest number of new employees with a non-Western background was found within the health sector, followed by the travel, cleaning, trade and industry sectors.

The issue of employment among refugees and migrants has been at the top of the Danish government's agenda - as well as being a much-debated topic in the public arena - for years. Women in this group in particular have been the subject of many recent projects and studies, and the government has recently launched a controversial new plan wherein these women in particular will be forced into full-time "useful jobs" invented solely for the purpose of granted them a specific kind of social benefit. The actual cost of the plan is many times greater than its expected profit; something that has been strongly criticised by the municipalities that will be implementing the plan.

The new analysis shows that the problem of low employment seems to be solving itself slowly but steadily in Denmark, giving the government and many politicians little ground for repeating the oft-used claim that "integration has failed in Denmark".