A core area of the municipalities is employment and integration of refugees and immigrants.
Employment
The overall goal for the municipalities is that as many people as possible are employed and able to provide for themselves.
Since the local government reform, job centres have been established in all the municipalities to provide one access point for citizens and business enterprises to the public employment effort. The job centres provide work and information on jobs and education to companies and citizens.
A central task for the job centres is to provide assistance to citizens who have problems finding a job. The job centre prepares job plans, provides support for the job search and offers employment-oriented activation. For citizens facing more problems than unemployment, it may be relevant to start rehabilitation or find a job with flexible working hours.
In addition, municipalities pay unemployment benefits to the unemployed who are not members of an unemployment insurance fund and sickness benefits in case of incapacity for work due to illness.
Integration
Municipalities are responsible for the integration of refugees and immigrants. This involves an introduction programme for up to three years for newly arrived refugees and relatives in a family reunification. The introduction programme, which is mandatory, is planned individually to fit the qualifications, resources and employment options of the person in question. In addition to lessons in Danish, it includes employment or educational offers as well as job training in companies.
The purpose of this special and early integration effort for new arrivals is to try to integrate immigrants and refugees in the Danish society through knowledge of the country, the language and the culture. Furthermore, the goal is to find jobs for the refugees enabling them to provide for themselves.
Foreigners from EU countries are not included in the introduction programme, but they will be offered the opportunity to learn the Danish language.
In addition, municipalities should provide the same services to people with an ethnic background other than Danish as they do to all the other citizens in the municipality in terms of day care, school, recreational activities, eldercare, etc.