Denmark has seen an increase in immigration over the past 30 years, with a large part of the immigrants originating from non-Western countries. As of 2014, more than 8 percent of the population of Denmark consisted of immigrants. As of Q2 of 2022, the population of immigrants was 652,495, excluding Danish born descendants of immigrants to Denmark. As of January 2024, the foreign born population in Denmark represented 14% of the population, of which 4.6% were born in another European Union state, and 9.4% were born outside of the European Union. This shift in demographics has posed challenges to the nation as it attempts to address cultural and religious differences, labour shortages, employment gaps, education of immigrants and their descendants, spatial segregation, crime rates and language abilities. More recent Danish policy toward immigrants has become more harsh with some calling the policies far-right.
History
Prehistory
Medieval age to Industrial Revolution
During the Medieval age various specialized groups entered the country. The introduction of Christianity required foreign skills. Through generations most of the early Danish bishops were immigrants, as were the monks that founded the first monasteries and many of the skilled artisans that were in charge of building the major churches and cathedrals in Denmark.
During the Medieval age also a number of Wendish settlements were founded, especially in Lolland-Falster. Of more lasting importance was a steady German immigration to Schleswig, pushing the language frontier between German and Danish to the north, and an influx of other German immigrants to many Danish towns. Also the Danish nobility was supplemented by many German noblemen. Indeed, the Danish royal house, after the death of Queen Margaret I of Denmark in 1412 without surviving descendants, was succeeded by three German princes who consecutively were elected kings of Denmark: Eric of Pomerania, Christopher of Bavaria and Christian I of Denmark, the latter founding the dynasty whose descendants are still monarchs of Denmark today. As both townsmen and noblemen made out a very small part of the population, the German immigration was numerically modest, but culturally and technically it had important and lasting impact upon Danish society. Many Danish terms of trade and industry immigrated to the Danish language from the German one during this period.
During the following centuries, various specific immigrant groups made a distinct cultural impact upon the parts of Denmark where they settled down. This was true for the Dutch farmers who, invited by Christian II of Denmark, settled in Amager after 1521. After the Reformation in Denmark in 1536, for several hundred years only Lutherans were allowed to settle permanently in the country, though in some cases the authorities made exceptions for specific groups. Christian IV of Denmark during the 17th century actively invited Calvinist Dutch specialists in shipbuilding and some other trades to settle down, granting them special privileges of freedom of religion. In 1682, the town of Fredericia granted freedom of settlement for Jews and non-Lutheran Christians as opposed to the rest of Denmark, creating a special atmosphere of religious diversity and tolerance. In 1773, another exception was created when a group of German immigrants from the Moravian Church founded the town Christiansfeld. During the Mercantilistic period in Denmark, the authorities repeatedly invited various groups of skilled foreigners to immigrate to Denmark, e.g. the so-called Potato Germans who settled in central Jylland during the mid-1700s and the Swedish artisans producing arms in Frederiksværk. The Danish military until 1849 employed various groups of foreign professional soldiers, implying that German was used as the command language in the Danish army until 1772–73.
Also the central administration and other parts of the political, scientific and cultural elite in Denmark were influenced by immigrants during the 18th century. People like Adam Gottlob Moltke from Mecklenburg and Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff, originally from Hanover, had leading offices in the Danish government. The scientist Carsten Niebuhr, the botanist Georg Christian Oeder, the historian Paul Henri Mallet, the architect Nicolas-Henri Jardin and the sculptor Jacques Saly were other important examples. The Prussian-born physician Johann Friedrich Struensee, who became royal physician to the mentally ill king Christian VII of Denmark and effectively ruled Denmark in an enlightened dictatorship in 1770-1772 until he was ousted by a coup d'état and executed, was probably the most eminent example. Struensee's rule caused resentment to foreign influence and led to a policy of Danish nationalism, one consequence of which was the first Danish nationality law in 1776, stipulating that only subjects of the king could obtain office in the civil or military service of the monarchy.
1800-1960
During the Industrial Revolution in Denmark in the 19th century, many workers, in particular from Germany and Sweden, immigrated to take part in large construction activities like railroads, dikes and the fortification of Copenhagen. In 1885, 8.1% of the population of Copenhagen was born abroad. Polish, predominantly female, farm workers, were imported in large numbers to working in the sugar beet fields in Lolland-Falster, which led to a significant rise in the number of Roman-Catholics in Denmark and the erection of several Roman-Catholic churches in the area. Concurrently, prior to World War I Denmark experienced a mass emigration to non-European nations.
International events led repeatedly during the 20th century to the arrival and integration in Denmark of various groups of refugees. They numbered among others Russian emigrants after the Russian revolutions of 1917, political refugees from the 3rd Reich 1933-1940 and about 1,000 Hungarians after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, which led to the formation of the Danish Refugee Council, henceforth administrating a large part of the integration of refugees in Denmark.
1960s and 1970s
During the economic upturn in the 1960s the manufacturing economy expanded and the demand for labor increased. As a result of the increased demand, a majority of immigrants that came to Denmark during the 1960s and early 1970s were migrant laborers with guest worker status. A large proportion of the guest worker population came from Turkey, Yugoslavia, and Pakistan.
At the end of the 1960s immigration policy became more stringent, greatly reducing the number of immigrants arriving in Denmark. Immigration was limited further in the early 1970s in response to the first oil crises and the resulting consequences for the Danish economy. In 1972 and 1973, Denmark's immigration policy only allowed for migration of workers from within the Nordic region. After 1973 this policy was expanded to also permit labor migration from Europe. Despite these limitations on immigration, the 1972 policy granted guest workers residing in Denmark the option of applying for family reunification which then became the primary method of immigration from non-European countries to Denmark.
From 1971 to 1977, government and non-government actors supported a foreign worker journal Fremmedarbejderbladet. The paper was published in Danish, Turkish and Serbo-Croatian for its entire duration, in Arabic from 1971 to 1972, in Urdu from 1971 to 1972 and 1973–1977, and in English from 1972 to 1973. Written by both Danish and foreign workers, the paper provided information about housing, work permits, collective bargaining, taxes, health and safety at work, and Danish culture, including the sexual revolution and women's rights. Andrew DJ Shield, Immigrants in the Sexual Revolution: Perceptions and Participation in Northwest Europe, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017): p. 87-88.
1980-2000
In 1983 a large majority in Folketinget passed a new immigration law which gave asylum seekers and other refugees clearer legal rights. The law has often been labeled one of the most liberal immigration laws in Europe.
The granting of political asylum in conjunction with the Geneva Conventions greatly impacted immigration to Denmark from the 1980s onward. Although immigrants arriving as a result of family reunification continued to comprise a large portion of new immigrant populations, the number of refugees increased. In the 1990s, refugees made up a majority of inflow of immigrants. The Enlargement of the European Union in 2004 led to a second wave of labor immigration since its halt in the 1970s as Central and Eastern European countries gained access to the opportunity of free movement that EU membership guarantees.
Immigration as a political issue
Concurrently immigration issues increasingly became a contentious political issue from 1984 onwards. Prior to the 1980s, immigration was not an issue that was included in political party manifestos. Immigration was first mentioned in political party agendas in 1981, when less than 1% of political agenda content was devoted to the issue. In 1987, 2.8% of Danish political party manifesto content mentioned immigration, after which mentions of immigration decreased below 1% until 1994 when the percentage jumped to 4.8% and then continued to increase to 7.7% during the 1998 election cycle and to 13.5% during the 2001 elections. When Danes were surveyed in 2001 about the most important issues politicians should address in the coming election, 51% of respondents listed immigrant and refugee populations. Starting from the late 1980s gradually more restrictions were introduced into Danish immigration policy, in particular after 2001, when a coalition government of the Liberal Party (Venstre) and the Conservative People's Party took over from the preceding Social Democratic/Social Liberal government coalition.
In 2002, a new policy stipulated that spouses must be 24 years of age or older in order to qualify for spouse reunification, now commonly referred to as the 24-year rule. In addition, the Danish immigration authorities were tasked with assessing if each member of the couple applying for spouse reunification had a greater attachment to Denmark or to another nation. Spouse reunification was denied to any applicants who had received Danish social assistance within a year of their application and the person already residing in Denmark was required to provide bank documentation that he or she could provide financial collateral for public expenses to support his or her partner. A housing requirement mandated a space of 20 square meters per person in the accommodations provided by the current resident of Denmark. As a result of these policy changes, the number of family reunification permits granted fell from 13,000 in 2001 to less than 5,000 in 2005.
2010s According to a 2012 report published by the Danish Immigration Service, the most common reasons for receiving a Danish residence permit were: 54% Immigrating under the European Union and European Economic Area rules of free movement 19% International students 8% Labor Migrants with work permits 6% Family reunification 5% Asylum seekers.
In the 2010s, the hold period for a family reunification was extended from one year to three, social welfare for asylum seekers was reduced, the duration of temporary residence permits decreased and efforts to deport rejected asylum claimants intensified.
By 2017 the character of immigration had changed from 20 years earlier. Whereas in 1997 individuals with asylum claims and family reunification with non-Nordic citizenship constituted about half the immigrants, in 2017 the majority (65%) was composed of international students and labour migrants whereas family reunification accounted for 13% of immigrants.