Labour market policies and refugees: the case of Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany

In this chapter, we explore the policy developments in Northern European welfare states in the wake of the refugee crisis of the mid 2010s. We describe and compare how Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany have reformed their labour integration programmes and policies during this period. We do this with the aim of analysing differences and similarities in the current national policy setup as well as discussing potential lessons to be learned between countries. We use a typology of labour market policy approaches for categorising and analysing the policies in each of the countries. Here, we classify the policies in terms of their focus on either the supply side, the demand side, or matching , and explore the policy content in each of the countries. We find that national policies in place are strikingly similar across countries, although with minor differences. The balance between supply-side, demand-side and matching policies differ between countries, but supply-side policies are most prominent in all of the countries.