Check against delivery.
Thank you for having me. I think this is an extremely important and also rather difficult topic. It concerns Denmark’s demographic challenges. It concerns the lives and rights of international workers. And in a broader sense it concerns globalisation, culture, and international collaboration.
Even though the current political climate is characterised by conflict and division, the world has become a lot smaller and more interconnected in the past decades. In my perspective this is a good thing.
Technology has made it easy to connect with people all over the globe, and every day thousands of people travel across borders to seek employment and a new home. This is a good thing for a small country like Denmark.
Because of our humble size we need to attract people from all over the world. We are a kingdom of many islands but we are not an island.
We are deeply dependent on and connected to the world around us.
Today we are going to talk about demographic problems and why I believe recruiting skilled labour from outside the EU is one of the solutions to them.
But I want to start by saying that I believe global mobility has positive effects that go way beyond the practical problems that it solves. I believe an international, diverse workforce and population make us stronger.
People from different cultures and different countries bring different perspectives and new ideas. This has value beyond the growth that it generates or the skillset the individual worker brings.
It makes our society stronger.
Labour shortage in Europe
And now to the more specific.
Denmark is facing a labour shortage. This is well documented. The younger generations are getting smaller each generation. Our workforce will shrink. At the same time there will be more elderly people in need of care and fewer people to care for them.
We are trying to counter this in the ways we can – for instance by nudging more young people in the direction of careers in health care.
But the bottom line is that we are just not going to be enough people.
We need more people. More skilled hands, more sharp brains. This will be a persistent problem for many years to come if we do nothing.
The conclusion to all of this is that there is an ever-increasing need to be able to recruit internationally.
And it is not only Denmark, but all of Europe, who are facing these same demographic issues. So, we need to look outside the borders of Europe too.
The labour shortage is a problem for many industries and for the Danish economy.
But it is especially grave for our health care and elderly care systems.
So, in many ways we are lucky that we are a part of an enormous global society. And that there are skilled workers from other countries who want to come here for education and work.
This is why we are working on establishing partnerships with some of these countries, like India and the Philippines to make sure that this can happen.
And that it can happen in a professional and fair way that benefits both the individual worker, their country of origin, as well as Denmark.
I believe that international recruitment can be done in an ethical way that benefits all parties involved.
A little more than a year ago I visited New Delhi to explore the options of a potential collaboration about nurses and elder care workers. And I was met with great enthusiasm from the Indian officials I met with.
India is in many ways in the opposite situation of many European countries when it comes to demographics. They have a fast-growing population and higher unemployment rates among young people.
This is why it is possible for us to make mutually beneficial agreements.
An Indian nurse or care worker who comes to Denmark will learn a new language and will be trained in Danish care. He or she will – hopefully – integrate into Danish society and make a life here.
Maybe some Indian workers will want to return to India later on. Something they can do with a whole new set of experiences and skills that they can bring home and apply to the Indian health sector.
Making a life here
But this whole thing is of course dependent on us making a solid and professional framework for receiving these people into our society.
When skilled workers choose to leave everything they know behind to come to Denmark and work, there needs to be a system in place for them when they arrive.
Help with housing, help to learn our rather difficult language, help to navigate our even more difficult administrative systems.
Help to make a life here.
We can look to our neighbours in Germany to see how it’s done. Germany has recruited more than 3.500 nurses from countries outside the EU since 2013. And they are establishing partnerships with more countries as we speak.
We can look to our own reception of Ukrainian refugees who have been very successful in integrating into the Danish workforce.
I think it’s easy to get lost in the narrative of developing countries being drained of their sharpest minds by rich European countries. This is not what we’re proposing.
International recruitment of health care professionals should be done with respect for the opportunities and needs of both countries. It should be an equal collaboration through fair partnerships.
And it should always centre the welfare and lives of the people who leave their homes behind to become part of the European workforce and society.
In a world of conflict and uncertainty I think the answer is more global collaboration and more global mobility.
Thank you.