Denmark Gives Large Bonuses To Get Migrants To Work

Denmark has revealed a new plan to get migrants to work by offering companies 40,000 kroner to hire them.

The new agreement for migrants is part of the ‘integration basic education’ plan that hopes to get migrants working so they are not as huge a drain in the Danish welfare system as they are becoming more and more in places like Germany and Austria.

The programme announcement comes just after figures were leaked to Danish media showing non-Western migrants made up a startling 84 per cent of all Danes on welfare. Migrants currently cost the government around 1.1 billion pounds every year.

TheLocal.dk reports the new programme aims to get migrants into short-term jobs at an apprentice salary of around 50 to 120 kroner an hour. This is the equivalent of around 12 pounds an hour which is almost double the current wage for British apprentices who are paid a minimum of £6.70 an hour, although that will increase to £7.20 in April.

The migrant jobs will last up to two years and they will also be offered 20 week courses to increase their skill development and further their education. The companies that participate in the scheme will also be eligible for a bonus of 40,000 kroner (£4,179), if the migrants remain employed for the two-year term of the contract.

The Danes will also pay for accommodation for the migrants who take part, making sure that they are able to live close to their employer or at least in the same city or town. Relocation and transportation costs will likely also be paid for by the state.

Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the Prime Minister of Denmark, said the new scheme was a perfect example of the new “Danish model.” He said: “A job is key to integration. Therefore it is essential that we more quickly get refugees into jobs so that they become a resource, and not a burden, for our society.”

Further praising the Danish method of handling the migrant crisis he said: “The agreement is part of our strong tradition of working together with the job market to solve difficult societal questions together. I’m happy that we have given the Danish model new life with the deal.”

The Danish model is in stark contrast to other European nations and their handling of the migrant crisis. Germany has developed a very different approach where they believe migrants must learn German first and get a job later. The problem, according to many teachers and social workers, is that the migrants are either unwilling to learn or simply don’t have the capacity to learn a trade or learn a new language. One German said that the coming migrants were mostly functionally illiterate and that the vast majority would end-up on welfare. An Austrian teacher expressed the same view with her migrant students calling them a “lost generation.”