'We are not capable of recruiting just inside Denmark's borders anymore'
Camilla Tanghøj, the Head of Strategy and Politics for Local Government Denmark, explains why Denmark's municipalities are calling for urgent work permit reforms so that they can recruit international workers.
Local Government Denmark (KL), which represents all of Denmark's 98 municipalities, this week published an 11-point list of recommendations it wants the government to consider to make it easier to recruit internationally, warning in its document of "a shortage of tens of thousands of employees in our nursing homes, schools, kindergartens and residential facilities".
READ ALSO: Danish municipalities launch recommendations for more foreign workers in welfare jobs
Tanghøj, who leads the organisation's long-term strategy work, told The Local that the it had been forced to call for reforms after realising that municipalities would not be able to continue to deliver their services if international recruitment was not made easier.
"When we look towards 2030, we are short about 16,000 employees, just in our municipal health departments, and we don't see how we are going to be able find these employees just in the Danish workforce," she said. "I don't think we are capable of recruiting just inside Denmark's borders anymore."
According to Tanghøj, municipalities have over the last decade stepped up their efforts to recruit young people, to bring older workers back into the labour force, and to train up refugees and the long-term unemployed.
"It has helped a bit, but it's not enough, and I think when we looks towards the future, we see that we have to do more international recruitment as well."
As well as traditional municipal workers like nurses, teachers, and elderly care staff, the coming green transition will also require municipalities to employ engineers in large numbers, expertise they were already struggling to find locally, she added.
The first of the organisation's 11 points is a call for Denmark to develop a national plan for international recruitment, something she said that countries like Germany, Sweden and Norway had long had in place.
"Germany, for example, has a branding strategy telling people that Germany is a nice place to come and work, that they have friendly people and good welfare, so we expect that some EU citizens,who maybe could have come to Denmark, go to Germany instead."
Another recommendation is to put nurses, care workers, and other municipal jobs on Denmark's so-called Positive List of jobs where there is a shortage of workers, and also to simplify the system of Positive Lists so that there is only one list.
"When you're talking about the history of integration in Denmark, I think [elderly care] represents an area where people need other people, so it's a difficult topic," she explained. "In the area of climate change, it's not that dangerous to say 'we need international colleagues or expertise', but when we talk about healthcare and elderly care, it's much more difficult."
She said that unions had also been worried historically about competition from cheaper foreign workers driving down wages and taking jobs.
"There has been some concern that if it gets on the list, it will take jobs from Danish people. But when we are in such a great need of workers, that's not an issue at all any more."
She said that although there was now a recognition both from central government and the unions of the need to recruit health and care workers internationally, adding roles to the Positive Lists "can take quite a bit of time", she said, adding that the process needed to be streamlined.
"There's an understanding now that these lists need to show the jobs that are required now, not the jobs that were required a year, or even two years, ago," she said. "I think the first big step would be to not have so many lists, to only have one. But I don't have a good answer as to how to do it."
As well as difficulty getting a work permit in the first place, health and care workers also need to apply to have their qualitifications approved, she continued, a process that can take six months or more.
Nowadays, for example, a foreigner who has their nursing qualifications rejected after a six month process has to apply again and wait another six months if they want to apply to be approved to be a less-qualified nursing assistant, something Tanghøj suggested could easily be avoided by allowing people to apply for the lesser role in their initial application.
A third recommendation is to look at how to reduce bureaucracy faced by work permit applicants, with Tanghøj calling for Denmark to improve what she called 'the citizen's journey' by looking at the process "though an international employee's eyes".
"There's just a simple human factor that you need to feel you are welcome in Denmark, and I don't think you feel that now when you arrive and immediately need to do all this paperwork. It's not a positive experience today."
She said one option would be to allow paperwork to be done in the employee's home country before arrival, something that could also be done with language tuition. One of the organisation's recommendations is to extend the free language tuition available in Denmark to those who have yet to leave their home countries.
"I think they like that part," she said of the government. "Because they are having some of the same thoughts."
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Local Government Denmark (KL), which represents all of Denmark's 98 municipalities, this week published an 11-point list of recommendations it wants the government to consider to make it easier to recruit internationally, warning in its document of "a shortage of tens of thousands of employees in our nursing homes, schools, kindergartens and residential facilities".
READ ALSO: Danish municipalities launch recommendations for more foreign workers in welfare jobs
Tanghøj, who leads the organisation's long-term strategy work, told The Local that the it had been forced to call for reforms after realising that municipalities would not be able to continue to deliver their services if international recruitment was not made easier.
"When we look towards 2030, we are short about 16,000 employees, just in our municipal health departments, and we don't see how we are going to be able find these employees just in the Danish workforce," she said. "I don't think we are capable of recruiting just inside Denmark's borders anymore."
According to Tanghøj, municipalities have over the last decade stepped up their efforts to recruit young people, to bring older workers back into the labour force, and to train up refugees and the long-term unemployed.
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