Moving back to the UK from Denmark?

[Copenhagener]

I’m a British woman in a long-term relationship with a Danish man. We have a daughter (2 years old) together.

We’ve lived in Copenhagen since 2019, and I’m a permanent resident here. I’ve successfully worked as a copywriter in tech companies until very recently, when I was laid off. There seem to be no jobs available in my field thanks to AI replacing my role, and a shift away from hiring foreigners. I have ‘unemployment insurance’ for two years which covers most of my salary. After that, it runs out and I would either need a job, or to go on government benefits - which would prevent me from ever becoming a Danish citizen. Luckily my partner earns well, but it’s still going to hit our living standards eventually.

It’s very hard here to get non-specialist work here, and of course Danes are prioritised for it. I’m struggling at the thought of being unemployed potentially forever. Even warehouse work is a challenge to find. I’ve had non-Danish colleagues who’ve been out of work for 1-2 years already.

I am considering moving back to the UK to access a bigger job market that won’t discriminate against me based on my nationality - even if it’s finding a new career path. I know the UK isn’t great right now economically, but I’m feeling really stuck, lonely and bored sitting at home all day, knowing I can’t get a job.

I’m curious if anyone else has made the move back, and if they’d recommend it? Or whether I should get used to being unemployed potentially for the next 30 years.

And your partner and daughter ?

You have two years worth of insurance payout income lined up? Wow, great! Play your cards carefully and this could be amazing.

Does this not buy you time to upskill into a different career?

Would you still qualify for the insurance pay out if you move back to the UK?

The job market is horrendous in the UK at the moment so I wouldn’t see that as a panacea. If you can manage financially as a family in Denmark with you not working, I’d stay there. Find a hobby or a side gig to keep yourself occupied. You will have a much higher standard of living in Denmark than you will in the UK right now as well as avoiding destabilising your partner and daughter.

If you’re unhappy living in Denmark, that’s different. But it sounds like your only reason for wanting to move is because you can’t find work there?

Incredibly unlikely you’d be unemployed forever.

the uk job market is not much better and Denmark has much much better childcare availability and support than the uk. Two years is a long time.

would just you move? Without your daughter presumably?

Unfortunately foreigners are discriminated against in the Danish job market in a way which would either be outright illegal in the UK or just would not happen. Scandinavia can be extremely insular and racist, much more so than the UK, but hygge-propaganda does a good job of hiding it

Sorry; I thought it’d be clear my partner and daughter would come too; as long as we both found work. There would be not much point otherwise. My partner’s employer has a British office he could transfer to.

Would your partner's UK office sponsor his work visa? Otherwise, you'd be looking at a spouse visa, where you would already have to be in employment with a salary of around £38k (please check gov.uk for the exact figure).

No. Use your insurance money to retrain in something else with bigger job prospects. The benefits of living in Denmark cannot be matched here especially when it comes to your daughter as she gets older and even goes to Uni

What about your husband and daughter?

I moved back to the U.K. from Germany in 2007, I’d been away more than 10 years.

It was brilliant to return, I’ve never been so happy!

The job market here is very bad currently, it might make sense to jobhunt from Denmark and see where you land.

As a PP said, have you checked your husband's visa position?

Dane here.

No, when you receive unemployment insurance in Denmark, you're not allowed to be in education. The job centre, when you get transferred over to them from your job insurance company after 3 month's unemployment, may offer you pre-approved courses to upskill if they think it'll help your job prospects.

Also, if OP makes money from other sources, it'll count against her insurance payout so she'll get less from them.

It's not "discrimination" to favour Danish-speaking workers over those who don't speak Danish. You have to remember that while most Danes speak English rather well, our native language is DANISH. That's the language we speak here, and the language we operate with on a daily basis. Not all workplaces can waiver the requirement of knowing and understanding Danish, so, obviously, it's a basic requirement to know the language. I don't believe for one minute I would be on equal footing with an English speaking applicant if I applied for jobs in the UK not knowing English.

@Copenhagener I wouldn't despair, 2 years is a long time and anything can happen in that period. I have an English-speaking friend who managed to get a job after 1½-2 years on dagpenge. You'll be fine, but you need to be persistent and patient. And maybe use this time to improve your Danish and enjoy not having work responsibilites, think of a business you can start, or even talk to Jobcentret about courses they'll allow you to take to upskill. I think Jobcentret or your A-kasse can help you if you're thinking of going down the entrepreneurial route, by the way.

@YRGAMexplains the job market dilemma you are in so well and I think it will be very difficult for anyone who has just visited Denmark to understand just what it can be like to live/work here as a foreigner. Denmark is fantastic at marketing its self and its concepts - but there are problems here too.

In your position, I would definitely explore your options in the UK as well as your choices in DK with a view to having things settled before your little girl starts school and gets settled.

if you enjoying living here, speak Danish and have a secure relationship then retraining as a healthcare worker / childcare worker might be a good option ….

good luck 🤗🍀 it’s a tough decision

Hej! Jeg kan godt tale dansk :)

Switching back to English for the others in the thread.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and story! For me; I’ve been hearing others who are fully fluent in Danish too - who’ve lived here for 10+ years, being refused roles because there’s been a switch to prioritising Danish applicants, even if they’re much less qualified. Whether that’s right or wrong isn’t for me to say, but it does affect us. The work I did before was in English copywriting - they wanted a native speaker, so I was headhunted for that.

When I last spoke to the Job Centrr, they said I could consider cleaning, or moving back to my home country, so I’m not sure they’ll be too helpful. If I do stay, I will consider retraining; but it’s not worth it to me if I’ll still always be passed over in favour of locals.

I am in a relationship with somebody who was married to a Dane for 20 years and was completely miserable for the whole time he lived in Denmark. I don't think anybody who is not in the situation can quite understand. He was desperately lonely and bored as they didn't even live in Copenhagen but out in the sticks.

They'd agreed that they would bring up the children in Denmark but then come to the UK once they were grown. He describes his time there as being his time serving on the rigs. I don't think Danes are particularly welcoming or open to outsiders.

He's so much happier back in the UK. If your partner can transfer then sounds like the right time to move back.

I’m surprised at how many people have commented who have some connection to the immigrant experience here.

I’m sorry for your partner - it’s an extremely hard place to be if you’re not from here, in my experience. I still have no Danish friends after 7 years here - though luckily I have met other internationals who’ve been similarly cold-shouldered. And it’s not just foreigners - even Danish people struggle with it.

Funnily enough I met my partner when he lived in England, working for the company he’s now working for back here. He misses England too. After moving back, he only gets to see his friends - who live minutes away - two or three times a year, because they’re always ‘busy’. Even my daughter never gets invited to anything with the other children. It’s a lonely life, but up until now, it was worth it because of the good financial situation. With that gone, I feel completely over it.

Every non-Dane I know who has lived and worked in Denmark much prefers Denmark to the UK. They never had any problems integrating with the Danes but I think working alongside them made it easier. That’s quite a few Brits, a Norwegian and a few French people. However only the French people remain there as the work for the others has now dried up - with the exception of a Brit friend who ran his own business in Copenhagen but split with his Danish wife so eventually he settled in France running a business there (rather than come back to the UK).

I actually think from my own (limited) experience that the UK is relatively unusual in not giving any priority to British citizens over foreign nationals when it comes to employment. That does mean it can be a bit of a culture shock to us Brits when other countries don’t treat us equally. (I haven’t worked in Denmark but I’ve been on the receiving end of open discrimination in non-European countries when I’ve lived and worked there).

I wouldn’t rush into making any decisions right now. It sounds like financially there’s no reason to rush and who knows what state the world will be in this time next year. I’m currently job hunting in the UK (my job was cut a few months ago) and it is an utterly miserable experience. There is a huge surplus of candidates for roles so employers can be very very picky if you ever manage to get as far as an interview.

His experience was the same. He made one Danish friend in 20 years, and several American and other nationality friends. He was very lonely despite working and said he was only really happy once he got home with his family.

One of his children has followed him over here and absolutely loves it here. I think Danes can be very nationalistic and rigid in their rituals by the sounds of things.

In your shoes there is no way I’d leave until I had obtained Danish citizenship. Look for remote and freelance work. Do whatever it takes to stay. The UK is in a bad way. The grass is not greener.

Hi OP, British mum living in Copenhagen with a 2 year old here! 👋

if you want to try and make it work here, I would tell all your network you are job hunting and meet people for coffee etc. that’s how I got a new job this year, it was through people I knew.

i have also been missing England recently, but contrary to your experience I am a single mum here and I find my life is much easier than it would be in the uk, financially and also in terms of how family friendly the workplace is. Only you know how your life would be in England and whether the trade off would be better