Danish municipalities’ efforts in attracting and retaining skilled migrants: Towards a discourse analysis of how municipal measures frame skilled migrants

Motivated by the growing political and economic significance of global talent mobility, this study focuses on municipal initiatives that aim to foster inclusion and retention. The purpose of this paper is to examine how Danish municipalities contribute to attracting and retaining highly skilled migrants through local initiatives and discursive practices. It further examines how highly skilled migrants interpret, negotiate, and respond to such institutional representations and contributes to broader discussions on migration, integration, and identity construction in municipal contexts. Despite strong national recruitment policies, Denmark continues to face challenges in retaining international professionals, which highlights a gap between attraction strategies and migrants’ lived experiences. This research note addresses this issue by setting a research agenda for exploring how municipal programmes construct the identities of highly skilled migrants through communication and events, and how migrants respond to these constructions.