As I mentioned in several earlier blogs, the Norwegian population isn’t as homogeneous as it used to be nor as most people believe it is.  Not everyone in Norway has blond hair and blue eyes.  A good portion of the northernmost part of the country is inhabited by a minority, indigenous population, the Sami people.  Samis inhabit the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia.  It wasn’t until 1990 that the Norwegian government recognized the Sami as a people with their own language, culture, and government.  Even though the Sami are a native minority (some of whom look quite different in physical appearance than a non-Sami Norwegian), Norwegians still seem to encounter issues with immigrants.

According to the Statistisk Sentralbyrå website (www.ssb.no), there are 460,000 innvandrere (immigrants) in Norway.  Of these, 79,000 are Norwegian-born persons with immigrant parents.  Innvandrere in Norway represent 213 countries of origin.  Half of all innvandrere come from Asia, Africa, or Latin-America.  There are, however, many immigrants from northern European countries such as Sweden, Denmark, and Germany.  There is a strong presence of immigrants from the middle-east as well.  Surprisingly, every municipality in Norway is home to innvandrere.

Much like most of Europe, Norway is a very socially liberal country.  Norway is a constitutional monarchy which is governed by the Storting (the parliament).  Moreover, Norway is a welfare state that takes very good care of it’s people.  Relative to it’s population, Norway is one of the top givers of foreign aid in the world.  The development of the Norwegian welfare system was possible for many reasons, not least of which was because of the enormous amount of oil that was found in the north sea in the 1960s.

It might seem like Norwegians have no reason to be intolerant of innvandrere given their socially liberal tendencies.  What I have recently come to understand is that it is precisely these views that cause Norwegians to be intolerant of certain groups of outsiders who inhabit their country.

Many of the innvandrere, as I mentioned earlier, are from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.  As such, these countries’ traditions do not support the equal treatment of men and women.  Equality between the sexes is most definitely a Norwegian ideal.  Norwegians do not approve of how men from male-domintated cultures treat women (i.e. men deciding over women and fathers over children) and therefore these innvandrere endure discrimination.

There are of course other issues that Norwegians have with immigrants, such as minimal financial contributions to the government and significant extraction of government services.  Lots of take, little give.  However, the inequality between men and women is one of the main reasons that discrimination and racism towards immigrants exists in Norway.

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