Starting in 2025: The government and right-wing parties will require migrant women to work to receive cash benefits, and these are the conditions...
The Danish government, in cooperation with the Danish Democrats and the Danish People's Party (both right-wing blue parties), will implement a new law aimed at obliging recipients of Kontanthjælp cash assistance to engage in jobs such as cleaning or similar work. The law aims to provide employment for approximately 22,000 people by 2025, which is three months from now.
Conditions for exemption from the new law
The law will not apply to people who have lived in Denmark for 9 of the last 10 years and worked full-time for 2.5 years during that time.
The law specifically targets immigrant women from non-Danish ethnic backgrounds, requiring them to engage in work such as cleaning cafeterias or helping to water plants in offices, under the guise of “useful jobs.”.
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According to the DR website, Noureddine Hussein, the jobs and welfare advisor for the municipality of Aalborg, expressed concern about the feasibility of this step in providing real or useful jobs in the long term. He pointed out that this approach may not be effective in providing permanent employment opportunities, and expressed his fear that they will find it difficult to meet the requirements of the new law by finding enough job opportunities for everyone.
The project was discussed today in the Danish parliament, and because there is a sufficient majority to pass it, the new law is expected to be implemented gradually starting from the beginning of next year, 2025, amid concerns from some quarters that the law may not achieve the desired goals. However, the government believes that it provides individuals, especially women from the targeted groups, with an opportunity to work and contribute to society instead of relying solely on financial support.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had previously commented when the bill was introduced that women “from non-Western backgrounds should wake up in the morning, pack their lunchbox and go to work. It is good for themselves, their children and society.”.
Figures from Statistics Denmark and the Ministry of Labor show that four out of ten non-Western women are not employed, and that the majority of them have been dependent on the cash assistance system for many years.
According to the Ministry of Labor, more than 40% of women who have received continuous cash benefits for ten years have a non-Western background. The Prime Minister has always addressed this problem, which no government has yet been able to solve. “That is why we are now taking a new approach,” says Mette Frederiksen.
