ABSTRACT

This master’ thesis investigates and attempts to understand the factors that affect the higher unem-ployment rate among men over 50 years of age from non-Western backgrounds in Denmark. We chose to investigate this issue because we often hear and read in the Danish media that the afore-mentioned target group is experiencing high unemployment and challenges in the Danish labour market. Likewise, this group also forms an increasing proportion of the Danish population, and this is a topic that dominates public debate in Denmark.
This thesis is based on four qualitative interviews with men over 50 years of age from non-Western backgrounds. The purpose of this study is to understand the higher unemployment rate among this group. The interviewees are men from different non-Western backgrounds and with different expe-riences of the Danish labour market. We have used different sociological theories to understand this issue, such as Goffman’s micro-sociology “face work” and linguistic interaction” to analyse the un-employment issue.
The study found that there several factors affecting this group’s higher rate unemployment. Our analysis reveals Danish language skills to be one significant factor that has an impact on the partici-pants’ employment opportunities and their interaction with ethnic Danes in the workplace. It seems that certain job types require excellent language skills, and so it can be difficult for them to obtain higher job positions without Danish language skills. This study also suggests other factors, such as social networks, education, the tone of the public debate, cultural practices and cooperation with job centres, also affect participants’ unemployment rate and access to the Danish labour market. This study shows that there are many factors that contribute to the high unemployment rate among these men; as a result, this issue may be more complex than first appears.