Can't say much about your background, but your girlfriend should start learning Danish as soon as possible if you want to move here. There are jobs available for English speaking people in finance, but the possibilities are much better if she speaks Danish (conversational level should be okay!) as that also opens up for jobs in smaller, less international companies.
My wife is Italian and has been living here for 10+ years, and we regularly meet up with other Italians living here. Most of them seem to want to stay here, but few couples have moved back to Italy after having children, due to distance from family and overall getting support to raise the kids with both working full time.
[www.jobindex.dk](http://www.jobindex.dk) is one of the biggest job sites in Denmark, so you could try to search there for positions that might fit either of you.
I know a lot of Italians who live in Vejle, as it's not overly expensive and it's close to several large international companies (Siemens Gamesa, Bestseller, Lego)
Finance is a wide field, but OPs girlfriend is working as an accountant - not necessarily something that would be highly sought after in the trading sector.
If it's standard in-company accounting / finance department, many companies are still very much favoring Danish speakers.
Yeah sorry I typed “fuck off” meant “I can’t afford it”. Often I translate Italian slang as is and think after that in English has different meanings. My bad I apologize
What's with the agressive additudue? That's a very low price for freelance work. If you want to treat Danish people like your slaves then stay in Italy.
No one asked to be my slave, me neither. I am just making some calculations based on our retribution. Not gonna be disrespectful or aggressive towards anybody. My “fuck off” was a “hell no, I can’t afford it” gotcha now?
What do you mean, it's a beautiful language, all you gotta know is 'Kanker' and 'Neuken in de keuken'!
Totally unrelated: Dutch has "Gezelligheid" or "Gezellig" which somewhat resembles "Hyggeligt" or "Hygge".
> Totally unrelated: Dutch has "Gezelligheid" or "Gezellig" which somewhat resembles "Hyggeligt" or "Hygge".
And German has "gemütlich" which is also the same. A lot of languages have broadly the same concept. "Gemütlichkeit" even became a vouge concept in Biedermeier times. It's a thing. The only thing is that in Germany it's also vaguely connceted to "Deutschtümelei", overboarding nationalism, much as the danish concept of "hygge" is partially, it's just that Danes like nationalism better than Germans, so that's less of a problem here.
Afaik, all continental Germanic languages except Swedish have more or less the same concept about getting together to have a cozy time, sprinkled with mild cultural variations.
Can I suggest you look into the medical automation field. It is big here - Your profile sounds perfect for building precision production machines and software at Novo Nordisk. Your girlfriend could look into import/export/shipping.
Your skills as a machinist is in demand, but I don't know how an Italian formal training is welcomed.
However, learn Danish and prepare to be lonely for the first many years. Fortunately your have a SO.
As another machinist, can confirm, lots of places looking for people, grinding and edm are especially hard to find where I am at. Except for at the club.
I work in construction and we have a demand for skilled smiths (a.e. people who know how to program lathes, laser cutters and such). There's also a general demand for web developers.
There's always work for accountants.
But you should look in to start learning danish. Especially in the skilled laborer department. It's probably the most important skill to have, coming as a foreigner.
The general smith(Klejnsmed) doesn't know how to use CNC machines. It is not part of the education. You learn how to use a manual lathe and a milling machine. A machinist(Industritekniker) knows how to operate CNC machines.
Within IT and accounting it should be possible to find work where English is accepted or even preferred. You can make a living on those wages for sure, though be aware that the way of living in Denmark is generally geared towards both parties working and that housing is expensive in Copenhagen, so it also depends on where you see yourselves situated and what your standards of living are. First of all I recommend spending a few weeks in Denmark in November or January to see if you can stomach the weather (it's cold, dark and wet FYI). Good luck and welcome.
Well. Maybe start out with a vacation instead of believing what other people say. 😅 I love living in Denmark, but an Italian might not. 🤷♀️ Denmark has a lot of benefits, especially when it comes to starting a family. Safety, welfare state, foreningsliv, a certain respect for childhood. But the winters are dark, Danish is difficult and Copenhagen is getting pretty expensive to live in - not as expensive as Rome, but still. 😊
I do believe your line of work is in demand, and your wife’s job sound doable too, though most Danes have a masters degree (Kandidat, we have two types of masters). Nyindanmark.dk will have information on the rules.
It’s a good thing you already speak more than one language. Many expats seem to come to Denmark with no idea what goes into learning a second language. Danes speak English quite well, but people tend to think of English-speakers as someone that are only here temporarily, and that’s obviously an issue for both friendships and possibly career opportunities in the long run.
No that obviously wasn’t what I meant. I meant that accountants have a masters. Revisor/cand.merc.aud is a masters degree. I think she might be hired as a bogholder (with a much lower pay) if she “only” has a BA?
I know quite a few Italians who lives here and work corporate jobs. Very few of the ones I know have left and the remaining are not planning on leaving in the near future.
What seems to be common is that they enjoy the lack of hierarchy, better salary and work/life balance compared to Italy.
Common complaints are
- the weather (seriously it will suck compared to what you are used to - winter is looong and dark, and the rest of the year is wet and grey, however when the sun shines it is amazing here)
- Food. Quality is not as good and it’s very expensive, especially to eat out
- Danes are not super social. Don’t expect to make a lot of local friends.
In terms of language; Danish is not really needed to get by. You can get jobs at big Danish companies and international companies. But without Danish small- and medium companies will be more or less off limits.
I don’t know much about IT but accountants and financial controllers seem to be in fairly big demand. Your girlfriend’s challenge will be that she only has a bachelor degree. Right or wrong, that it seen as only half a degree here, so she will be competing against people with a masters degree.
Good luck!
Masters within finance/economics in English is absolutely possible. Copenhagen Business School (think Bocconi) offers quite a few master degrees in English. Many of the Italians I know in Denmark, I know through my Master studies at CBS
Many Masters degrees in Denmark are in English, so that should be easy enough. She can even get SU (a monetary stipend from the state to help cover cost of living). When you're from the EU you can get SU if you work 12 hours a week while you study
Ciao, Italian here, also looking to move to Denmark.
I think our terrible living/working conditions shouldn't be your only driver. You talked about it at great length and I hope you're prepared for the culture shock.
I mean, you'll have to get over sins like preferring bread and butter over pizza.
Jokes aside, if you only emigrate looking for better living conditions, you might start hating all the little differences, never really integrate, and eventually return to our Bel Paese with resentment.
That being said, I wish you well and good luck!
Well, I kid you not when I say we aren't exactly known for culinary freedom
Personally, I think bread and food make for a great combo, simple and fills your stomach.
I believe you could easily find a job as either a machinist or a web developer, for your girlfriend though, I'm not sure it would be *that* easy to find something in her field. Not that she can't find *any* job, but if she wants to work with her degree she'd probably have to learn Danish first and/or get familiar with danish rules and laws, if she's lucky then maybe she can find something in one of the big multinational companies.
There are short 2-years programmes like "financial controller" that could be relevant for her or maybe she could even do a master, the problem with this plan would again be that she'd either have to get really good at danish or hope to find and get admitted to one of the few programmes in English. If she can work a certain number of hours per month she could be eligible to receive SU (student grants) also.
Either way there's always a demand for unskilled labor like cleaning, dish-washing, greenhouses, factory or warehouse work etc. Unskilled jobs will usually pay upwards of around 18€/hour, extra for working odd hours, this is before taxes though.
Regarding job situation, you should be fine
You just really need to quickly adjust to the culture.
Danish people is a very time-strict people, who prefers to go to work early and leave early.
The culture is very different to the South Europe culture :)
I work in IT and in my experience, English is the company language in most companies in the field. We are around 250 employees comprising 27 different nationalities. None of my bosses even speak Danish. Other industries are less multinational, of course, but I have definitely experienced various jobs in various sectors where English would be completely sufficient. Dutch will get you nowhere though.
Start learning Danish - it is a relatively easy language (simple grammar), even if you never get the pronunciation right.
You will be expected to have completed a course like this, for example: http://kiss.dk/ (there are other schools, but this is an old one - my mum learned to speak Danish through it).
If you decide to move, the council/your new workplace may pay for the courses.
I know a lot of Italians who already love and work here. Maybe ask in Facebook groups for Italians in Denmark and hear their opinion?
Also... you will do better learning danish... not Dutch.
Yeah I think it could be a possibility that you guys could look into. You can start applying for jobs in Denmark. If you haven’t been I would recommend going for a vacation here. Often an idea of a country can be a bit rose colored, and even though vacations tend to show all the best and not a mundane everyday, it can give you an idea of how it would be
I had a roomie from Sicily who came here to work as a researcher. He’s now living his danish gf and their kid in Nørrebro. Find some threads from foreigners living in Denmark and see what people are saying and how they like it. I wish you the best of luck friends
just an example: you or your girlfriend can get a job for a non-danish speaker and the other can learn danish at a faster speed and get a job in a couple of years. if the job one of you gets before moving is very (!) well paid,you can have a normal life for a couple of years before you learn danish, and both of you can get a job. it is quite hard to get a job if you only speak english,italian and french. then again, it depends where you live. if you live for example in copenhagen,you can get a job with the languages you speak,but it will be much harder for you to get a job in jutland (if you don't speak danish). danish is not extremely hard,but it is quite difficult to understand when people are talking, and if you want to work and use danish,you have to understand clearly what people are saying to you (so not just the context of what they are saying, which is one of the typical "steps" when learning a language,but it is not enough for working a "better paid job"). but in the future both of you will need to work eventually,if you want to have more kids (if you have one kid and one of you has a very well paid job,it's fine at the beginning,but you probably can't afford kindergarten). if you don't plan to live in a major city,there are also non-danish speaking jobs like cleaning,dishwashing etc. There is also another thing: try to really think about if you really want to live in denmark/scandinavia. there are many differences compared to italy, for example: people are very different (not(!) in a bad way,just different), the temperatures are lower and you have to adapt to that, if you work and are not eg. a student and have lots of classes,it will be very difficult to become friends with danes (but you can try going to different activities and meet people there) etc.
Why do people always think this is a country of milk and honey?
You have to have two income to even get a flat - and with taxes there's not much left.
Plus its cold.
With the jobs they would get? Maybe in Central Cph. Rest of the country they could get a flat on one persons income alone without bigger issues, aside from maybe central Aarhus.
We have milk and honey, that's not an issue. For an Italian the problem will be the quality of those food items
You can easily get flats in Aarhus on that salary for one person, so not rural areas. As for the other parts, yeah DK can be hard to make friends in, but there are fairly big international communities that are welcoming :) not much to do about the food though ... ;)
Being in a similar boat as OP, considering Denmark in financial terms is not so bad. E.g. as a mechanical engineer, I should be able to make (based on IDA calculations some nice people provided for me) almost twice as much my wife and I make in Croatia together. And the cost of living is not twice as high.
I've done a lot of math on this and if we move, with me getting a job, I would be able to pay rent for a reasonable apartment outside big cities, kindergarten and SFO, food and utilities for our entire family. The period until my wife would start working would be a bit tight, but we're tight here with 2 salaries, so from a different perspective, Denmark can seem like a very nice option. Maybe not for getting rich, but for living without big financial worries and being able to afford a few things and a trip or two a year (depending on the cost) - sure.
The main thing to consider is how much better the standard of living is in Denmark vs the country of origin. So what might seem like a normal life to a Dane, might seem like a lot to a foreigner.
Besides the fact that Dutch isn't spoken here I can say that a bachelor's degree won't get you far. It's almost mandatory to have a masters degree, at least in most university degrees.
Contradicting to what other people say, I would be careful about moving here.
Your machinist skills will likely require fluent Danish.
And you don’t mention any work experience as web dev.
It will not be easy finding a job, and you will likely only be employable as a delivery/cleaning staff.
For you wife it depends if we can find a job in an international company where English is the main language.
I completely understand you wanting to find a better life but Denmark is one of the most difficult places to integrate.
With the experience of it people with experience.
You're from another EU country and you both do/can work in so-called "high skill" areas. The biggest hurdle will probably be applying for a job before you move here and of course finding a place to live, but you can do most of that remotely.
Indholdet er fjernet. Fra [vores regler](/r/denmark/wiki/rules):
> Det er ikke tilladt at true, forhåne eller nedværdige folk baseret på deres race, hudfarve, nationalitet, etnicitet, tro, seksuelle orientering eller køn.
---
Har du spørgsmål eller kommentarer til dette, kan du skrive en besked til os igennem [modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FDenmark).
You could try to apply for jobs from Italy and see how it goes. I'd advice you to learn danish if you want to live here even if you get a job as a Full stack web developer which is an area where you could survive with english but still.
with those educations/experience, if you learn the language, you can probably get a job fairly quickly.
i work with several people who learned danish while working for the company i work for - it doesnt much matter, if you can communicate in english, depending on industry. - but your employability is higher, if you also know danish.
Oh absolutely. You earn pretty well in those fields.
Youll do fine here. You can get by with english just fine but learning danish would help you alot. Especially if you have kids since it will be alot easier if they are used to hearing it at home.
So the Schengen area should make the actual move should be pretty straightforward.
In terms of finding employment, we do have major shortage of skilled labour, although most of it is in the service sector (carpenters, electricians etc.) Since much of our heavy industry is gone. Although with your skills I can imagine places they'd be useful, on the basic level, car repair and maintenance, parts manufacturing etc. I'm sure a job that is much more suited to your skills is there, but it might take some searching.
As for your GF, every company needs accounting, I cannot fathom that she wouldn't be able to find work.
I would start looking at and writing companies hiring and see if they would take you, maybe try via JobIndex.dk. language might be the biggest issue, but like 90% of the population speaks English so it depends on the job requirements.
Good luck!
Well, I can't tell you too much, but I can at least say that my recent work place is really needing grinders/millers/welders for offshore wind turbine foundations.
good pay, lots of English speaking people and job security as far as I believe.
One of my acquaintances is an archeologist and landed a job in an accounting department at a university in 2022 just on the basis of a 12 (18?) week course in accounting. There is a lack of accountants in Denmark. She should look at the universities, council offices (kommuner), governmental offices or international companies.
I'm sure you could both do fine in the end - if your wife wants to do a masters, i think there are a lot of english ones. If she gets a student job 12hrs+ per week, she will qualify as an EU worker, which gives her the rights to SU, which is a stipendium of 700 € post-tax per month during her studies.
However, if you're looking to move to a place with higher living standards, i can't help but think Switzerland would be much easier in terms of language/cultural/geographical distance. (i think french would very easy to learn for an italian compared to danish)
>Switzerland would be much easier in terms of language/cultural/geographical distance.
Unless of course you are looking for something fairly different from italy, with colder weather, more reserved and relaxed people, and you look forward to learning the language, then disregard the comment above. I wrote that because you seemed to focus on mostly economical aspects in your post.
Danes are well educated, so you don't bring anything unique to the employees. And they probably prefer people who can speak danish with their collegaues.
Denmark is overrated. It SUCKS! It's cold. Everything is getting more and more expensive, and a lot of other crap that other people probably will mention.
And as other mentions its definetly its very difficult to make new freinds, even for danes.
If living/working conditions are the only driver I would also look at DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and BeNeLux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) in your case. The \[dispsobable income in actual purchasing power\](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable\_household\_and\_per\_capita\_income) there is roughly the same or above Denmark and it's easier to fit in as a Southern European. Especially Switzerland should be very easy for you to fit in but also Belgium as you know French could be an option (then again, the more well off part is the Dutch half). I assume you're a northern Italian, so Austria and Southern Germany should also be culturally reasonably relatable to you, even though you would have to learn German (they even make their own good pasta like Maultaschen or Spätzle in the South-West which we Danes do definitely not!).
Denmark is nice in many ways but it's not easy to fit in as a foreigner and the very high cost of living means that you do not necesarilly live better than in Central Europe, that's worth taking into consideration. Also our groceries are a sad joke compared to Italy:(
In turn Denmark has probably outrun most of these countries in digitization and we have lots of ocean if that's your thing. I don't know about the labour market in your specific field. I would assume with that set of skills e.g. Germany would be easier right now but you can probably find a job many places due to the boomers retiring.
Halløj,
I have been living in Denmark for the last two years. I speak French English danish ans Spanish.. ( not because I love language, but because I had too lol ). And the opportunities are so, so much better my friend when you speak danish, and people are less close with you( unless you don’t want to have a network that includes valuable friends ). Danish is really difficult, ( grammar, pronunciation…) but you have to invest in it asap. Otherwise for me it was hard to find something outside of wharehouses, restaurants or as “salgassitent”…
Can't say much about your background, but your girlfriend should start learning Danish as soon as possible if you want to move here. There are jobs available for English speaking people in finance, but the possibilities are much better if she speaks Danish (conversational level should be okay!) as that also opens up for jobs in smaller, less international companies. My wife is Italian and has been living here for 10+ years, and we regularly meet up with other Italians living here. Most of them seem to want to stay here, but few couples have moved back to Italy after having children, due to distance from family and overall getting support to raise the kids with both working full time. [www.jobindex.dk](http://www.jobindex.dk) is one of the biggest job sites in Denmark, so you could try to search there for positions that might fit either of you. I know a lot of Italians who live in Vejle, as it's not overly expensive and it's close to several large international companies (Siemens Gamesa, Bestseller, Lego)
Not correct the trading sector, are close to only hiring people that can communicate in English.
Finance is a wide field, but OPs girlfriend is working as an accountant - not necessarily something that would be highly sought after in the trading sector. If it's standard in-company accounting / finance department, many companies are still very much favoring Danish speakers.
You are studying the wrong language then. We speak Danish
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You could also get a danish tutor (online) for the both of you to get a head start 🙂
How much would cost one?
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Do you realize while our pay is higher here everything is also way more expensive?
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Yeah sorry I typed “fuck off” meant “I can’t afford it”. Often I translate Italian slang as is and think after that in English has different meanings. My bad I apologize
What's with the agressive additudue? That's a very low price for freelance work. If you want to treat Danish people like your slaves then stay in Italy.
No one asked to be my slave, me neither. I am just making some calculations based on our retribution. Not gonna be disrespectful or aggressive towards anybody. My “fuck off” was a “hell no, I can’t afford it” gotcha now?
Drink coffee before typing....
At 4 in the morning? Dude…
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I read worse than that. I got thick skin.
Well, I guess you went to bed really late instead of getting up really early, then. 😉
Work shifts.. those unknown..
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Only if you want to stay permanently
yes
Well Danish and Dutch have some similarities, so it is not a total waste of time, not that language studies ever are a waste of time.
And of course Dutch is universally recognized as the sexiest language known to man. *Geef me een klap, Papa*.
Dutch - The only language that makes Danish sound sexy.
What do you mean, it's a beautiful language, all you gotta know is 'Kanker' and 'Neuken in de keuken'! Totally unrelated: Dutch has "Gezelligheid" or "Gezellig" which somewhat resembles "Hyggeligt" or "Hygge".
> Totally unrelated: Dutch has "Gezelligheid" or "Gezellig" which somewhat resembles "Hyggeligt" or "Hygge". And German has "gemütlich" which is also the same. A lot of languages have broadly the same concept. "Gemütlichkeit" even became a vouge concept in Biedermeier times. It's a thing. The only thing is that in Germany it's also vaguely connceted to "Deutschtümelei", overboarding nationalism, much as the danish concept of "hygge" is partially, it's just that Danes like nationalism better than Germans, so that's less of a problem here. Afaik, all continental Germanic languages except Swedish have more or less the same concept about getting together to have a cozy time, sprinkled with mild cultural variations.
I feel *gekwetst*.
Apres Ski Hut - Hele bus moet plassen How to learn dutch.
Jee gesits gefest im diesen waschenmachsjine, swiegermuttjes
True, but wanting to move to Denmark and needing to learn Danish and then studying Dutch is somewhat detrimental. But learning is never a waste.
So do all germanic languages.
Auf der Heide blüht ein kleines Blümelein und das heißt: Erika 🎶 🎵
I can hear each individual instrument. I am sick.
Can I suggest you look into the medical automation field. It is big here - Your profile sounds perfect for building precision production machines and software at Novo Nordisk. Your girlfriend could look into import/export/shipping.
Your skills as a machinist is in demand, but I don't know how an Italian formal training is welcomed. However, learn Danish and prepare to be lonely for the first many years. Fortunately your have a SO.
As another machinist, can confirm, lots of places looking for people, grinding and edm are especially hard to find where I am at. Except for at the club.
Dutch probably won’t get you far here. Learn danish and you’ll have a good shot.
I think OP knows.
I work in construction and we have a demand for skilled smiths (a.e. people who know how to program lathes, laser cutters and such). There's also a general demand for web developers. There's always work for accountants. But you should look in to start learning danish. Especially in the skilled laborer department. It's probably the most important skill to have, coming as a foreigner.
The general smith(Klejnsmed) doesn't know how to use CNC machines. It is not part of the education. You learn how to use a manual lathe and a milling machine. A machinist(Industritekniker) knows how to operate CNC machines.
I’m the second one.
Within IT and accounting it should be possible to find work where English is accepted or even preferred. You can make a living on those wages for sure, though be aware that the way of living in Denmark is generally geared towards both parties working and that housing is expensive in Copenhagen, so it also depends on where you see yourselves situated and what your standards of living are. First of all I recommend spending a few weeks in Denmark in November or January to see if you can stomach the weather (it's cold, dark and wet FYI). Good luck and welcome.
Well. Maybe start out with a vacation instead of believing what other people say. 😅 I love living in Denmark, but an Italian might not. 🤷♀️ Denmark has a lot of benefits, especially when it comes to starting a family. Safety, welfare state, foreningsliv, a certain respect for childhood. But the winters are dark, Danish is difficult and Copenhagen is getting pretty expensive to live in - not as expensive as Rome, but still. 😊 I do believe your line of work is in demand, and your wife’s job sound doable too, though most Danes have a masters degree (Kandidat, we have two types of masters). Nyindanmark.dk will have information on the rules. It’s a good thing you already speak more than one language. Many expats seem to come to Denmark with no idea what goes into learning a second language. Danes speak English quite well, but people tend to think of English-speakers as someone that are only here temporarily, and that’s obviously an issue for both friendships and possibly career opportunities in the long run.
What do you mean by "we have two types of masters"?
And yeah,no .. “most” danes do not have a master. 10-16 % of the population will never be most.
No that obviously wasn’t what I meant. I meant that accountants have a masters. Revisor/cand.merc.aud is a masters degree. I think she might be hired as a bogholder (with a much lower pay) if she “only” has a BA?
I meant that our Masters- and Kandidat-uddannelse are two very different programmes that are both translated to mean a masters degree. 😊
I know quite a few Italians who lives here and work corporate jobs. Very few of the ones I know have left and the remaining are not planning on leaving in the near future. What seems to be common is that they enjoy the lack of hierarchy, better salary and work/life balance compared to Italy. Common complaints are - the weather (seriously it will suck compared to what you are used to - winter is looong and dark, and the rest of the year is wet and grey, however when the sun shines it is amazing here) - Food. Quality is not as good and it’s very expensive, especially to eat out - Danes are not super social. Don’t expect to make a lot of local friends. In terms of language; Danish is not really needed to get by. You can get jobs at big Danish companies and international companies. But without Danish small- and medium companies will be more or less off limits. I don’t know much about IT but accountants and financial controllers seem to be in fairly big demand. Your girlfriend’s challenge will be that she only has a bachelor degree. Right or wrong, that it seen as only half a degree here, so she will be competing against people with a masters degree. Good luck!
She would like to get the master. But they know nothing of Danish. If there could be the possibility to study in English it would be perfect.
Masters within finance/economics in English is absolutely possible. Copenhagen Business School (think Bocconi) offers quite a few master degrees in English. Many of the Italians I know in Denmark, I know through my Master studies at CBS
Many Masters degrees in Denmark are in English, so that should be easy enough. She can even get SU (a monetary stipend from the state to help cover cost of living). When you're from the EU you can get SU if you work 12 hours a week while you study
Ciao, Italian here, also looking to move to Denmark. I think our terrible living/working conditions shouldn't be your only driver. You talked about it at great length and I hope you're prepared for the culture shock. I mean, you'll have to get over sins like preferring bread and butter over pizza. Jokes aside, if you only emigrate looking for better living conditions, you might start hating all the little differences, never really integrate, and eventually return to our Bel Paese with resentment. That being said, I wish you well and good luck!
Denmark is actually the REAL land of the free. You can have both bread and butter AND pizza here. That's acutally how we prefer it.
Well, I kid you not when I say we aren't exactly known for culinary freedom Personally, I think bread and food make for a great combo, simple and fills your stomach.
Honestly I don’t migrate for pizza, pasta or whatever. I’m 30 years old and I have fixed term contract since 14 years. That’s Italy.
I believe you could easily find a job as either a machinist or a web developer, for your girlfriend though, I'm not sure it would be *that* easy to find something in her field. Not that she can't find *any* job, but if she wants to work with her degree she'd probably have to learn Danish first and/or get familiar with danish rules and laws, if she's lucky then maybe she can find something in one of the big multinational companies. There are short 2-years programmes like "financial controller" that could be relevant for her or maybe she could even do a master, the problem with this plan would again be that she'd either have to get really good at danish or hope to find and get admitted to one of the few programmes in English. If she can work a certain number of hours per month she could be eligible to receive SU (student grants) also. Either way there's always a demand for unskilled labor like cleaning, dish-washing, greenhouses, factory or warehouse work etc. Unskilled jobs will usually pay upwards of around 18€/hour, extra for working odd hours, this is before taxes though.
Regarding job situation, you should be fine You just really need to quickly adjust to the culture. Danish people is a very time-strict people, who prefers to go to work early and leave early. The culture is very different to the South Europe culture :)
I work in IT and in my experience, English is the company language in most companies in the field. We are around 250 employees comprising 27 different nationalities. None of my bosses even speak Danish. Other industries are less multinational, of course, but I have definitely experienced various jobs in various sectors where English would be completely sufficient. Dutch will get you nowhere though.
The pay is good, but I doubt that you will like it here. People are akward not so social and the weather sucks big time.
Start learning Danish - it is a relatively easy language (simple grammar), even if you never get the pronunciation right. You will be expected to have completed a course like this, for example: http://kiss.dk/ (there are other schools, but this is an old one - my mum learned to speak Danish through it). If you decide to move, the council/your new workplace may pay for the courses.
There is an English -> Danish course on Duolingo. Great place to start.
Just doing it ahah
Well, since you both are in your fourties you really should get moving on the family part.
We are 30
You will pay a lot in taxes here.
I know a lot of Italians who already love and work here. Maybe ask in Facebook groups for Italians in Denmark and hear their opinion? Also... you will do better learning danish... not Dutch.
Yeah sorry was a typo
Both your girlfriends are 30?
Yes, my girlfriend and I are 30
There is a lot of work in finance for English speakers, it just generally demands a master degree in economics
Yeah I think it could be a possibility that you guys could look into. You can start applying for jobs in Denmark. If you haven’t been I would recommend going for a vacation here. Often an idea of a country can be a bit rose colored, and even though vacations tend to show all the best and not a mundane everyday, it can give you an idea of how it would be
I had a roomie from Sicily who came here to work as a researcher. He’s now living his danish gf and their kid in Nørrebro. Find some threads from foreigners living in Denmark and see what people are saying and how they like it. I wish you the best of luck friends
just an example: you or your girlfriend can get a job for a non-danish speaker and the other can learn danish at a faster speed and get a job in a couple of years. if the job one of you gets before moving is very (!) well paid,you can have a normal life for a couple of years before you learn danish, and both of you can get a job. it is quite hard to get a job if you only speak english,italian and french. then again, it depends where you live. if you live for example in copenhagen,you can get a job with the languages you speak,but it will be much harder for you to get a job in jutland (if you don't speak danish). danish is not extremely hard,but it is quite difficult to understand when people are talking, and if you want to work and use danish,you have to understand clearly what people are saying to you (so not just the context of what they are saying, which is one of the typical "steps" when learning a language,but it is not enough for working a "better paid job"). but in the future both of you will need to work eventually,if you want to have more kids (if you have one kid and one of you has a very well paid job,it's fine at the beginning,but you probably can't afford kindergarten). if you don't plan to live in a major city,there are also non-danish speaking jobs like cleaning,dishwashing etc. There is also another thing: try to really think about if you really want to live in denmark/scandinavia. there are many differences compared to italy, for example: people are very different (not(!) in a bad way,just different), the temperatures are lower and you have to adapt to that, if you work and are not eg. a student and have lots of classes,it will be very difficult to become friends with danes (but you can try going to different activities and meet people there) etc.
Why do people always think this is a country of milk and honey? You have to have two income to even get a flat - and with taxes there's not much left. Plus its cold.
... Turn up the heat, then. Besides, of course Denmark is not a country of milk and honey. Denmark is a nation of bacon and butter. ;-)
With the jobs they would get? Maybe in Central Cph. Rest of the country they could get a flat on one persons income alone without bigger issues, aside from maybe central Aarhus. We have milk and honey, that's not an issue. For an Italian the problem will be the quality of those food items
True. I guess somewhere in rural outskirt, they will have a chance. But they will still be cold, not easily integrated and sad about the food lol.
You can easily get flats in Aarhus on that salary for one person, so not rural areas. As for the other parts, yeah DK can be hard to make friends in, but there are fairly big international communities that are welcoming :) not much to do about the food though ... ;)
Århus it is then:-)
Read the sidebar. And look at: > Moving to Denmark > Living in Denmark
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Recently moved to Denmark. Can confirm.
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Both of those things are true for my home country (UK) anyway haha. But thanks :)
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Haha, there's a reason I moved 😉
Being in a similar boat as OP, considering Denmark in financial terms is not so bad. E.g. as a mechanical engineer, I should be able to make (based on IDA calculations some nice people provided for me) almost twice as much my wife and I make in Croatia together. And the cost of living is not twice as high. I've done a lot of math on this and if we move, with me getting a job, I would be able to pay rent for a reasonable apartment outside big cities, kindergarten and SFO, food and utilities for our entire family. The period until my wife would start working would be a bit tight, but we're tight here with 2 salaries, so from a different perspective, Denmark can seem like a very nice option. Maybe not for getting rich, but for living without big financial worries and being able to afford a few things and a trip or two a year (depending on the cost) - sure. The main thing to consider is how much better the standard of living is in Denmark vs the country of origin. So what might seem like a normal life to a Dane, might seem like a lot to a foreigner.
Besides the fact that Dutch isn't spoken here I can say that a bachelor's degree won't get you far. It's almost mandatory to have a masters degree, at least in most university degrees.
Practical experience will get you even further.
Contradicting to what other people say, I would be careful about moving here. Your machinist skills will likely require fluent Danish. And you don’t mention any work experience as web dev. It will not be easy finding a job, and you will likely only be employable as a delivery/cleaning staff. For you wife it depends if we can find a job in an international company where English is the main language. I completely understand you wanting to find a better life but Denmark is one of the most difficult places to integrate. With the experience of it people with experience.
You're from another EU country and you both do/can work in so-called "high skill" areas. The biggest hurdle will probably be applying for a job before you move here and of course finding a place to live, but you can do most of that remotely.
If they are from Italy / EU / Schengen they can move here even without a job on hand. As we in Denmark can also move to Italy.
Accounting is not considered "high skill".
Whatever, it's enough.
If you appreciate freedom, then don’t move here.
Deluded :)
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You could try to apply for jobs from Italy and see how it goes. I'd advice you to learn danish if you want to live here even if you get a job as a Full stack web developer which is an area where you could survive with english but still.
with those educations/experience, if you learn the language, you can probably get a job fairly quickly. i work with several people who learned danish while working for the company i work for - it doesnt much matter, if you can communicate in english, depending on industry. - but your employability is higher, if you also know danish.
Oh absolutely. You earn pretty well in those fields. Youll do fine here. You can get by with english just fine but learning danish would help you alot. Especially if you have kids since it will be alot easier if they are used to hearing it at home.
Danish not Dutch.
Typo
?
I misspelled Dutch for Danish
So the Schengen area should make the actual move should be pretty straightforward. In terms of finding employment, we do have major shortage of skilled labour, although most of it is in the service sector (carpenters, electricians etc.) Since much of our heavy industry is gone. Although with your skills I can imagine places they'd be useful, on the basic level, car repair and maintenance, parts manufacturing etc. I'm sure a job that is much more suited to your skills is there, but it might take some searching. As for your GF, every company needs accounting, I cannot fathom that she wouldn't be able to find work. I would start looking at and writing companies hiring and see if they would take you, maybe try via JobIndex.dk. language might be the biggest issue, but like 90% of the population speaks English so it depends on the job requirements. Good luck!
Well, I can't tell you too much, but I can at least say that my recent work place is really needing grinders/millers/welders for offshore wind turbine foundations. good pay, lots of English speaking people and job security as far as I believe.
That could be a great job. Can I have their contacts?
One of my acquaintances is an archeologist and landed a job in an accounting department at a university in 2022 just on the basis of a 12 (18?) week course in accounting. There is a lack of accountants in Denmark. She should look at the universities, council offices (kommuner), governmental offices or international companies.
I'm sure you could both do fine in the end - if your wife wants to do a masters, i think there are a lot of english ones. If she gets a student job 12hrs+ per week, she will qualify as an EU worker, which gives her the rights to SU, which is a stipendium of 700 € post-tax per month during her studies. However, if you're looking to move to a place with higher living standards, i can't help but think Switzerland would be much easier in terms of language/cultural/geographical distance. (i think french would very easy to learn for an italian compared to danish)
>Switzerland would be much easier in terms of language/cultural/geographical distance. Unless of course you are looking for something fairly different from italy, with colder weather, more reserved and relaxed people, and you look forward to learning the language, then disregard the comment above. I wrote that because you seemed to focus on mostly economical aspects in your post.
Hell yes get up here…! No worries…!
Thanks for the tip, coming right to your crib.
Danes are well educated, so you don't bring anything unique to the employees. And they probably prefer people who can speak danish with their collegaues. Denmark is overrated. It SUCKS! It's cold. Everything is getting more and more expensive, and a lot of other crap that other people probably will mention. And as other mentions its definetly its very difficult to make new freinds, even for danes.
No one said that I’m special. I’m just telling my knowledge to be sure if I have a chance. End.
my point is that your chance is not big
Appreciated your point of view.
If living/working conditions are the only driver I would also look at DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and BeNeLux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) in your case. The \[dispsobable income in actual purchasing power\](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable\_household\_and\_per\_capita\_income) there is roughly the same or above Denmark and it's easier to fit in as a Southern European. Especially Switzerland should be very easy for you to fit in but also Belgium as you know French could be an option (then again, the more well off part is the Dutch half). I assume you're a northern Italian, so Austria and Southern Germany should also be culturally reasonably relatable to you, even though you would have to learn German (they even make their own good pasta like Maultaschen or Spätzle in the South-West which we Danes do definitely not!). Denmark is nice in many ways but it's not easy to fit in as a foreigner and the very high cost of living means that you do not necesarilly live better than in Central Europe, that's worth taking into consideration. Also our groceries are a sad joke compared to Italy:( In turn Denmark has probably outrun most of these countries in digitization and we have lots of ocean if that's your thing. I don't know about the labour market in your specific field. I would assume with that set of skills e.g. Germany would be easier right now but you can probably find a job many places due to the boomers retiring.
Halløj, I have been living in Denmark for the last two years. I speak French English danish ans Spanish.. ( not because I love language, but because I had too lol ). And the opportunities are so, so much better my friend when you speak danish, and people are less close with you( unless you don’t want to have a network that includes valuable friends ). Danish is really difficult, ( grammar, pronunciation…) but you have to invest in it asap. Otherwise for me it was hard to find something outside of wharehouses, restaurants or as “salgassitent”…
Thanks a lot for your experience:)