Not quite - that's not how the labor market works here. We do have some problems with Somalians who are unused to live in a modern apartment, and there is a high fraction of taxi drivers from other countries, but the problem with immigration is political, because one of the most powerful parties works hard to prevent immigration of people that don't integrate themselves with the existing society. It is ok to see a Syrian/Palestinian guy get successful in Danish politics, because he has clearly integrated well, but it is nok ok to see Swedes or Americans move here and not integrate with the locals (they usually integrate well, but it's an example).
Generally, Denmark tries to avoid immigrants doing menial jobs. We did that in the 1960s, and we don't want to repeat that, there is a very strong political force against that. That's also why the biggest source of cheap labor comes from Poland - they recently joined the EU and can therefore freely work here. Poland i geographically very close, and this also means that the workers usually move back when the job is done. This is expensive for Denmark, because the money flows out, but in a time of crisis, like now, it is one of the stabilizing factors, because fewer guest workers from Poland would mean, that money increasingly stays here. I haven't heard that it's on a decrease, yet, though. Generally, there is no big sense of crisis here, yet - and Christmas shopping was only down 5% from last year. |
