Denmark's biggest attraction

This post is not about the little mermaid or H.C. Andersen – it’s about Denmark’s biggest attraction for foreign professionals rather than tourists.

The story goes as follows – a few days ago I happened to hear a conversation between a Dane and a Brit in Copenhagen that went something like this:

Brit: did you get the CV I emailed you about the sales position?

Dane: I did, and now that I have you on the phone why don’t you tell me a bit about yourself.

Brit: I led a large sales department in a UK company and am now looking for a sales role in Copenhagen.

Dane: I can only imagine there’s a woman involved.

Brit: What do you mean?

Dane: Professionals don’t usually move here for the weather or the taxes, but one thing we have going for us is the Danish girls – they still attract professionals to Denmark…

This funny conversation reminded me of my early impressions last year after spending a couple of months in Denmark, when I realized that 90% of the many foreign professionals I’ve been meeting moved here because of love. Not because of the special tax scheme the government enacted. Not because of the Green Card scheme. Not because of the many international branding programs run by the country. And not because of Mærsk. Well some actually were here because of Mærsk, but the vast majority were here because they were married to, engaged to or in love with a Dane. As was I.

Having moved here after living in New York and London this phenomenon was of course new to me, as most foreign professionals I had met in the past were living outside their home country due to their search for career, education, culture or inspiration (and sometimes due to sheer escape). But I rarely met foreigners who moved because they fell in love with a local. Why is it so in Denmark, I kept asking myself.

The natural answer seemed to be that outside the big cultural and business centers of the world, foreign professionals were to be found in smaller numbers and for mostly personal, rather than career-related, reasons. And it was no secret that compared to some other European cities, Copenhagen was lacking when it came to those two very important factors mentioned by the Dane above – weather and taxes, leaving perhaps love as the main reason to move here. But love is not exactly a solid strategy for importing much-needed skills and talent to the Danish economy, and with all the talk and legislative action around attracting foreign professionals to Denmark – I am wondering whether the situation is changing.

A quick look at the official 2010 Expat Study in Denmark doesn’t provide a clear answer, but it does give a clue. Apparently while the number of expats living and working in Denmark (defined in the study as “highly skilled and educated knowledge workers of the global economy”) rose from around 32,000 to 42,000 over the last 3 years, a staggering 66% of the survey’s respondents didn’t move here due to a company relocation or after being recruited abroad, but rather found their job after moving here (compared to only 60% in 2006). Does this mean many of those people moved here because of a personal relationship with a Dane?

My own anecdotal experience suggests that Danish women (and men) are indeed the main attraction of Denmark when it comes to foreign professionals. But if that’s the case, does Denmark realize this is its main asset for enriching the local talent pool?

Clearly not. A by-product of meeting all those foreign professionals who are here for love was getting to know their Danish partners. And those of them who were unlucky enough to fall in love with a non-EU person had nothing but shame and embarrassment of Denmark to confess. From the need to live in a property of a certain minimum size and with a minimum 3-year rental agreement period (forcing some of those couples out of the cities they want to live in due to the difficulty in either finding flats with long-term rental agreements, or affording properties of the minimum sized required), to the unbelievable requirement from the ‘sponsoring’ partner (the Dane) to post a collateral of more than DKK 60,000 to cover any potential future requests for public assistance – Danish family reunification rules make these couples feel unwanted and unwelcome. And those rules are only getting tougher with the new point system.

The result of all this is that most non-EU mixed couples I meet in Denmark talk about eventually leaving Denmark and moving to the partner’s home country – be it Canada, the US, Australia or many other countries I’ve met people from. Indeed the survey above finds that expats coming to Denmark for family and love are less likely to stay longer than planned, compared to expats coming to Denmark for work. And perhaps that’s what Denmark wants. What I learned from all this was that not only does Denmark not recognize its real asset in attracting foreign professionals to Denmark by making it harder for Danes to live here with their foreign loved ones, it’s actually going even further than that – by driving those Danes themselves out of Denmark. And that’s a double loss for the country.