Programmes for Integration of Refugees and Immigrants, Street-Level Bureaucratic Behaviour and Success of Integration Policies in Danish Municipalities

by Eskil Heinesen, Søren C. Winter, Ina Risom Bøge and Leif Husted, May 2004

Summary

Introduction

From 1999 onwards Danish municipalities have had the full responsibility for implementing active policies aimed at integrating new immigrants into the labour market. The group of immigrants for which the municipalities have these obligations are persons who

got residence permit after January 1st 1999,
were 18-61 years of age when they got their residence permit,
are from non-EU and non-Nordic countries, and
are refugees or family reunified.

The general framework for the integration policy is given by national law, but the 275 municipalities have great discretion regarding the administration of the law and the specific implementation of the policies.

The purpose of this report is to analyse the relation between Danish municipalities’ success regarding integration of immigrants and the municipalities’ use of different types of integration programmes and policies, including street-level bureaucratic behaviour. In addition, we analyse determinants of municipalities’ use of different integration programmes and policies.

Benchmark indicator for success of integrating immigrants

As a measure of municipal success in integrating immigrants we use a benchmark indicator based on the duration from the date an immigrant gets residence permit to the date he enters the labour market, i.e. the date he starts on his first regular job (or education). A short average duration to entering the labour market in a given municipality may indicate a successful municipal integration policy. Contrary, a long average duration may indicate a less successful municipal policy.

However, a long average duration from the date of residence permit to the date of entering the labour market may not necessarily be due to ineffective municipal integration policies. Alternatively, it may be caused by unfavourable general conditions for the municipality, e.g. a high local unemployment rate, or unfavourable characteristics, in terms of labour-market integration, of the immigrants living in the municipality. Therefore, we correct the average duration until entering the labour market for municipal differences in general conditions and (observed) immigrant characteristics.

The corrections are based on an estimated statistical duration model for all immigrants in Denmark fulfilling the four criteria listed above, using micro data based on administrative registers at Statistics Denmark for the period 1999-2001. The individual characteristics of the immigrants which are used for calculating corrections are the following: gender, basis for residence permit (refugee, or family reunification to a refugee or to a non-refugee), country of origin, age, single/married (to an immigrant or to a non-immigrant), having children, year of residence permit, and health conditions (measured by the number of contacts with general practitioners).

The general municipal characteristics included in the duration model as explanatory variables are the following: the local unemployment rate, the number of immigrants from non-western countries as a share of the population, and the number of immigrants fulfilling the four criteria listed above as a share of the population. Details on the specification and calculation of the benchmark indicator for municipal integration success may be found in Husted and Heinesen (2004).

Data on programmes for integration of immigrants and street-level bureaucratic behaviour

In explaining municipalities’ varying success regarding integration of immigrants, we use data on municipalities’ use of different measures aimed at integrating immigrants, including street-level bureaucratic behaviour. Variables on municipalities’ use of different integration measures are based on administrative register data and a survey conducted in 2000. Variables on street-level bureaucratic behaviour, on different aspects of integration policies and on the municipal organisation of integration efforts are also based on this survey.

Methods

We use multivariate regression analyses to investigate the association between Danish municipalities’ success regarding integration of immigrants on the one hand and the municipalities’ use of different types of integration programmes and policies, including street-level bureaucratic behaviour, on the other. We also use multivariate regression to analyse determinants of municipalities’ use of different integration programmes and policies. Since the number of potentially important explanatory variables in these analyses is very large and we only have a limited number of cases (there are only 275 municipalities in Denmark, data are missing for some variables for some municipalities, and some analyses are restricted to a subset of the municipalities), we have to conduct several sets of regression analyses focussing on different aspects of integration policies.

Main conclusions

One main purpose of this report is to investigate how municipalities’ success regarding labour market integration of immigrants is associated with their use of different integration measures, including street-level bureaucratic behaviours. A main result is that successful municipalities use private sector employment programmes to a larger extent than less successful municipalities. This result indicates that these private sector programmes may have a positive effect. Public sector employment programmes and other programmes, including classroom training in the Danish language, on the other hand seem to have negative effects, possibly due to significant locking-in effects. However, these results should be cautiously interpreted since we do not take account of selection effects. The results may in part be due to the fact that municipalities with a large fraction of immigrants with unfavourable (unobserved) characteristics in terms of labour market integration may (rationally) choose to offer private sector employment programmes to only a very limited extent, and use other programmes instead.

Another main result concerns the behaviours of caseworkers. In municipalities with a high degree of success regarding labour market integration of immigrants caseworkers to a larger extent work out individual action plans for immigrants on time and of high quality. Their behaviour towards immigrants is flexible rather than formalistic and consistent. Furthermore, they keep a certain professional distance rather than obtain close personal relations to immigrants. Surprisingly, caseworkers in the successful municipalities also use coping strategies towards immigrants to quite a large extent, which implies that they take shortcuts and primarily focus on the less complicated cases. But because the use of coping strategies is normally seen as something dysfunctional, it is uncertain whether this is merely a short-term success. Another characteristic of successful municipalities is that they provide considerably more in-service training of caseworkers regarding integration issues. Finally, neither threats nor use of economic sanctions seem to be associated with municipal success regarding the integration of immigrants in a statistically significant way.

However, the associations between integration success on the one hand and different aspects of integration measures and caseworker behaviour on the other depend on how difficult the municipality’s integration problem is. Using the mean expected duration until entering ordinary employment for immigrants in the municipality as an overall measure of the difficulty of the municipality’s integration problem, we find that the relations between integration success and private and public sector employment programmes mentioned above only apply for municipalities confronted with a difficult integration problem. The same applies for the associations between integration success on the one hand and the caseworkers’ punctual completion of individual action plans, their use of coping strategies and professional distance towards immigrants, and in-service training on the other. The associations regarding other types of caseworker behaviour only apply to municipalities with relatively small integration problems. This indicates that there are no universal solutions regarding choice of integration measures or caseworker behaviour.

The second main purpose of this report is to investigate why the integration policy measures employed in different municipalities are so different. The intention is to expose which possibilities the political and administrative leadership have to influence the choice of mix of measures and caseworker behaviours. On the one hand, the analysis indicates some limitations on political control, because municipalities’ structural contexts affect the choice of mix of measures, partly because caseworkers’ behaviour depends considerably on their personal attitudes. On the other hand, local management also has some great opportunities to affect the integration effort – either in direct competition with the influence from caseworkers’ personal attitudes, or more indirectly through affecting those personal attitudes and through organising the municipal integration effort. Thus, as well the choice of mix of programme measures as caseworker behaviours are affected by the extent of cooperation with local businesses, by the placement of responsibility for activating immigrants either within or outside the municipality, and by the degree of municipal specialization and in-service training of caseworkers.

Summing up, municipal success in terms of integrating immigrants into the labour market depends both on the choice of mix of policy measures and on caseworker behaviours. There are certain limitations on the ability of local managers to affect these things, but more importantly they also have some possibilities of making a difference, mainly through political signals, efforts to affect caseworkers’ personal attitudes and through organisational design. It is, though, important to realize, that the optimal mix of policy measures etc. depend on the specific character of the integration problem in the municipality.