Ministry panel: integration efforts off target
Immigrants remain cut off from Danish society, says the chairman of an integration think tank. They find the that government has treated symptoms rather than the root of problems
Integration of the country's immigrants still lags behind despite good intentions, the government's own Think Tank on Integration announced Thursday.
Immigrants and their descendants are largely relegated to a spot on the sidelines of mainstream Danish society, according to the blue ribbon panel, which falls under the Ministry of Integration,
'We have avoided confronting the problems. Most of what been done has been good enough, but there are signs of treating symptoms and small adjustments,' said Erik Bonnerup, the chair of the group.
Integration has largely failed, they said, because the government has focused too much energy on making demands to the individual immigrant instead of trying to remove barriers to the labour market.
The minister of employment, Claus Hjort Frederiksen, brushed the criticism aside and said the government has focused both on motivating individuals and on giving employers an economic incentive to employ immigrants and their descendants.
'We have created salary subsidies that practically cover minimum wages,' said Frederiksen.
The think tank highlighted seven areas that needed to be addressed to achieve successful integration. It found the need for a redoubled effort to improve immigrants' education and language, to help them join the labour market and to increase contact between ethnic Danes and immigrants.
Encouraging immigrants to participate in the political realm and fostering respect for democratic values and gender equality were also named.
Stig Martin Nørgaard, an analyst with the Confederation of Danish Employers, supported much of the think tank's findings but considered proposals for special subsidies for companies that employ immigrants as 'way out of line'.
'That proposal will distort the labour market and make it attractive to hire people with a foreign background and language problems rather than the best qualified applicants.'