The Private Sector Of Denmark Has Better Jobs Thanks To Immigration

01 Jan 2014

An extensive study conducted at the University of Copenhagen concluded that the immigration related fear in the mid-1990s regarding salary cuts or unemployment for people working in low paying jobs. The economists behind the study reached the conclusion that immigration to Denmark has influenced an increased job-specialization, which resulted in higher salaries for Danish citizens working in the private sector’s low paying jobs.

Giovanni Peri from University of California, along with her research colleague, analyzed the effects of serious number of immigrants entering the Danish labor market in 1995, on Danish-born wage earners, working in the private and public sectors.

The researchers analyzed developments and movements in the Danish labor force from 1994 to 2008. They also trailed several groups of salary earners aged between 21 and 51 in 1994 during the same time period across various trades, sectors and municipalities.

A PhD student at the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Economics, Mette Foged said, the general assumption is that more immigrants in the labor market means more competition for low-skilled Danes over the same jobs, and that this would result in salaries coming under pressure and unemployment. However, the numbers display that immigration to Denmark didn’t have any of these negative consequences. On the contrary, immigration has resulted in the advancement of Danes working in low paying private sector jobs. Many Danish workers have moved to more specialized jobs, and for the first time it can be documented that the specialization protected both jobs and salary.