I fully support the proposed strategy for the further internationalisation of Aarhus and I'm very excited to see how it will improve the city's positioning as an attractive place for international talent.

As someone who came to Aarhus as an international student and is now a specialist living and working in the city, I have seen many areas in which internalisation efforts can be improved to create a more welcoming environment for foreign talent. There are existing gaps in the integration of international students and graduates which doom their success rate with finding a job in Aarhus or in Denmark in general and therefore affecting their choice to stay and develop in the country.

There is a lot of untapped potential in international students/graduates which can only help the competitiveness of Aarhus and Denmark on the global market. The problem often starts at the early stages of education and spans over issues such as language barrier, problems finding relevant internships and job opportunities as well as overall integration in the culture and the feeling of being welcomed.

This is why Copenhagen is leading in terms of international talent retention, as there internationals feel more welcomed and find more career opportunities as there companies are more opened to hiring internationals and speaking in English is often a standard rather than an exception.

I think that with constructive efforts that focus on better-educating businesses about the benefits of employing international students and graduates as well as employing and working with foreign talent in general, together with creating more and better opportunities for internationals to integrate into the job culture and become a part of the Danish job market and business landscape (such as better internship programmes, better collaboration with companies, more combined Danish-international programmes etc) will result in a win-win for international talent, businesses and the city as a whole.

I believe that the city has fantastic potential but more needs to be done on "breaking the barrier" between Danes and internationals and preparing both parties to work together not looking at language and culture as an obstacle rather than an asset. Exciting to see how this unfolds.