Young refugees in Denmark are falling behind in the areas of education, labour market participation and health when compared with both the country's majority population and similar refugee groups in Finland, Norway and Sweden.

These findings have been released in an online publication by the Coming of Age in Exile (CAGE) programme, which investigates inequalities in the health and socio-economic situations of young refugees in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

Although Sweden has received a much higher number of refugees than other Nordic countries, it scores more positively on the Migration Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) when considering a number of indicators in integration policy and legislation.

Key findings presented in this online publication include the following:

Education

All children have full access to education in all the Nordic countries except Denmark, where asylum seeking children (and those whose claims have been rejected) do not have access to youth education.

In general, school grades are lower among refugee children than among children of the majority population, particularly refugee children who were older at their time of arrival.

Labour market

All four Nordic countries have introduced measures to help refugees into the job market: integration is usually measured mainly by success in this area. The number of young refugees who are neither working nor studying is high, and young women tend to fare worse than young men.

Denmark has the largest gap between women and men when it comes to access to the labour market, as well as the largest gap between the youth of the majority population and refugee youth. If a refugee has completed youth education, this gap tends to decrease.

Health

Denmark places greater focus on the health of newly arrived refugees than other Nordic countries, but at the same time is the only Nordic country without legislation to ensure that asylum seeking children have the same right to health care as Danish children.

Male refugees in Denmark were found to be at greater risk of mortality, early retirement and being in need of outpatient psychiatric treatment. They also face a higher risk of drug abuse and are more likely to use psycho-pharmaceuticals in comparison with both women refugees and men born in Denmark.

Recommendations:

The findings of the CAGE project show a need for new, better efforts to improve equality in health and welfare in the Nordic countries. The publication concludes with the following recommendations:

• Policy improvements which facilitate upper secondary education attainment should be of high priority in all four countries;
• Policy and practice to reduce the relatively high NEET rate among young refugees should be emphasised;
• Improvements to psychiatric care could include increased consideration of mental health in existing health reception policies, with Denmark as a good example. The issue should also be addressed in psychiatric services provision;
• The specific needs and vulnerabilities of unaccompanied refugee minors should be addressed in policy;
• Knowledge of gender differences in labour market participation and refugee health profiles should be applied to the design of future policy.