Position of immigrants and descendants of immigrants on the danish labour market

In 2012, employed immigrants, and to a certain extent, employed descendants of immigrants, were employed in lower positions than employed Danes and received lower hourly pay. Immigrants and descendants of immigrants are also distributed differently between business sectors, with an over-representation in sectors such as "trade, transport, hotels and restaurants" and “business services". Over a 15-year period (from 1997-2012), there has been a polarisation of immigrants on the labour market. Whilst Danes have been getting an increasing number of jobs high up in the organisational hierarchy, immigrants have been getting an increasing number of jobs both in the high and in low end of the hierarchy. The differences for descendants of immigrants and Danes are smaller than the differences for immigrants and Danes with regard to position, business sector and hourly rate. From 1997 to 2012, non-Western descendants of immigrants even started resembling Danes with regard to distribution by position, as fewer descendants of immigrants have jobs at the low end of the organisational hierarchy and more non-Western descendants of immigrants have jobs in the high end of the hierarchy. The report also shows that, compared with Danes, immigrants have difficulties fully exploiting their qualifications in their job.