Dr. Poul Chr. Matthiessen, Denmark’s foremost professor of demography, has written this book with the aim of presenting a broad overview of the process of immigration to Denmark and the integration of immigrants into Danish society.

In addition, he examines a number of related topics such as immigrants’ patterns of residence, immigrants’ education and their command of the Danish language, criminality, the position of immigrants in relation to the social security system, and the significance of immigration for public finances. The topics covered also include the attitudes of Danes to their new fellow-citizens. Are Danes more or less anti-immigrant than other Europeans, for example? And have the Danes’ views on foreigners changed over time?

The content of the book is based on research into immigrants’ conditions of life and integration into Danish society that has been carried out by the Rockwool Foundation Research Unit over the period since 1997. This research was instigated through a decision taken by the Board of the Rockwool Foundation in that year. The data produced through this research are supplemented in the book with updated information from Statistics Denmark.

This book provides the reader with both an overview and a detailed presentation of immigration to Denmark since 1960, and of the impact it has had on Danish society.