Researchers abroad risk being affected by reform – and so do their children

Researchers who have spent or plan to spend extended periods abroad risk being affected by new, stricter rules for social security should they need support in the future. Children born during these stays or who accompanied their parents abroad may also be impacted. 

Under the reform of the rules of social assistance, set to take effect on 1 July 2025, stricter regulations will apply to individuals who have moved to Denmark from abroad and are applying for social assistance. These include a 37-hour work obligation, which some recipients must fulfil through mandatory work activity in order to qualify. According to Minister for Employment Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen (Social Democrats), the new requirements are primarily aimed at women with a non-Danish ethnic background, as she stated when the agreement on the work obligation was reached in 2023. However, the tightened rules will also affect Danish citizens who have spent more than 12 months abroad – including expatriates and researchers on long-term stays – and, in some cases, their children.

The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters: "Rethink the legislation"

The stricter rules have prompted Susanne Ditlevsen, president of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, and Thomas Sinkjær, Secretary General of the Academy, to appeal for changes to the law. In an opinion piece in Information they problematise the fact that children of researchers who have been abroad do not have the same opportunities as other children if they are ever in a vulnerable situation and need social assistance.

"We therefore strongly urge former Minister of Research and current Minister of Employment Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen (Social Democrats) to rethink the legislation. Do we really want to punish those who follow our own research goals?" they write, referring to the fact that research stays abroad are not a luxury, but a necessity in order to be able to compete, and that the PhD executive order explicitly requires young researchers to participate in international research environments.  

New rules create uncertainty

Members of the Young Academy under the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters have yet to formally discuss the impact of the stricter rules in the upcoming social assistance reform. However, Kristina Bakkær Simonsen, associate professor at Aarhus University’s Department of Political Science and representative on the Young Academy’s research policy committee, emphasises that these changes will affect younger researchers, including Young Academy members.

The stricter rules can create uncertainty among younger researchers and are another element you need to consider in relation to your career planning," Kristina Bakkær Simonsen says, who is currently abroad in Zurich. However, she will not be subject to the new rules, as her stay doesn’t last 12 months.

Kristina Bakkær Simonsen points out that the rules affect not only researchers who have already been abroad but also those who might find themselves caught by legislation that didn’t exist when they decided to go abroad. And it affects researchers who will have to decide on stays abroad in the future. What is particularly striking about this law is that the researchers’ decision to go abroad doesn’t just affect them personally – it may also have consequences for their children.

"The injustice lies mainly in the fact that the legislation affects your children without you having had any chance of foreseeing it," she explains.

A burdensome choice

But at the same time, a stay abroad is often a prerequisite for continuing a research career in Denmark – and going abroad is, in fact, costly, she points out.

"You uproot your life, move away from family, friends and your professional network, and you invest significant resources in settling in. You may be able to come to terms with the personal cost, because you see it as the way to a stable career in Denmark afterwards. But it will be an even more burdensome choice to make, now that it also risks affecting your children," Kristina Bakkær Simonsen says.

She suggests that the stricter rules may lead to more researchers opting out of academic careers in the future.

“This could lead to a loss of talent, as the stricter rules risk reinforcing an existing trend where younger women, in particular, choose not to pursue an academic career.”

Kristina Bakkær Simonsen argues that politicians need to consider whether they’re willing to pay the price of a less international Danish academia – and the potential loss of talent – because of these new rules.

"If we want more internationalisation of research, it should be made as easy as possible to travel abroad – and this is where this reform is pulling in the wrong direction," she says.

Is the exchange of knowledge between researchers not in everyone's interest?

Agnete Larsen, who is the joint union representative for academic staff and administrative staff with an academic background (VIP and AC-TAP) at AU, agrees with Kristina Bakkær Simonsen that the stricter rules may have consequences for internationalisation.

"I think it will. Because as a young researcher, you have to carry out a cost-benefit analysis of how confident you are in a research career after completing your stay abroad, and whether it is best to leave your family, or whether you should take them with you and then risk putting your children at a disadvantage if they need social assistance. The latter is a difficult choice to have to make."

She is not yet aware of any specific cases where AU researchers have been affected by the stricter rules. But she would advise researchers to thoroughly familiarise themselves with the conditions under which they travel – and what consequences going abroad may have.

Directed at the politicians, she says:

"You have to strongly consider whether researchers' international knowledge exchange is not in everyone's interest – and with that in mind, if these rules are what you want."

Education and science spokesperson’s children are affected

Children adopted from abroad were initially also covered by the stricter rules, but after political pressure, Minister of Employment Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen presented a bill on 23 April that exempts minor adoptees from abroad from the rules. The proposal was given its first reading in the Danish Parliament on 8 May, where the politicians discussed, among other things, who should be exempted. The Danish Social Liberal Party's research spokesperson Stinus Lindgreen said that his children are subject to the stricter rules:

"Their only fault is that they went abroad with me for a few years because I had to work as a researcher, make some collaborations with other universities, bring some knowledge back to Denmark – some of the things we are encouraged to do."

As a researcher in bioinformatics at the University of Copenhagen, Stinus Lindgreen spent the years 2012-2015 abroad at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.

“The only thing I really want to ask the minister is: What have I done wrong? What have my children done wrong? Why should they be punished and apparently be worse off than all other Danish children, who are born in Denmark?"

Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen replied that it’s about taking care of our welfare model, and that she has always been aware that the reform would apply to Danish citizens:

For me, it’s about the fact that if you are either born abroad and come to Denmark, or you spend several years abroad and then return to Denmark asking our community for social assistance, we say: Okay, but then you have to meet the work obligation to receive the money.”

Stinus Lindgreen dismissed that argument by pointing out that, understandably, his children haven’t paid taxes.

Most recently, the parties behind two of the central political agreements behind the amended rules for social assistance proposed four additional exemptions from the rules. This applies to children born abroad to surrogate mothers, children born on holidays or short stays abroad, persons who have been prevented from returning to Denmark as planned as a result of unforeseen and extraordinary events, and finally state expatriates and their children and any accompanying cohabitants. However, the latter does not apply to university employees. 

This text is machine translated and post-edited by Cecillia Jensen.