Lack of language teaching, few who found the Arbetsförmedlingen and no social security number. The problems for those who moved from Ukraine to Sweden have been many. In Denmark, more people have received the authorities’ support to find work.
Polina Makarenkova works today as a graphic designer at a company in Copenhagen.
– It’s fantastic, exactly what I’m trained for, says Polina Makarenkova.
Through the municipality, which manages the coordination in Denmark, she got in touch with an employer.
– I received a call from the municipality saying that they had found a job that suited me. I got a lot of help from them, she says.
Denmark changed the law
Since the war broke out, roughly 30,000 Ukrainians of working age have sought refuge in Sweden, of which around 1,500 have found work after contacting the Employment Agency. Approximately 20,000 Ukrainians of working age have come to Denmark. About 7,200 of them are in work.
Denmark enacted a new law early last year – as an addition to the so-called mass migration directive. A debated and partly criticized fast track for Ukrainians into the Danish labor market.
Among other things, they have received a Danish social security number directly, which has made it easier for the authorities there to be able to help.
– In the municipality of Copenhagen, 60 percent of Ukrainians have found a job, in another municipality 85 percent of them have found work, says Jens-Kristian Lütken (V), Labor and Integration Mayor in Copenhagen.
The neighboring countries provide more support than Sweden
A report from the Nordic Council also shows that Ukrainians who moved to Sweden partially received less support than those who moved to our neighboring countries – among other things when it comes to language education.
– There have simply been different conditions in the different countries to be able to offer support. And it is fundamentally a political question how one chooses to change regulations, says Therese Lindström, head of unit at Arbetsförmedlingen.