Immigration to Norway

The number of immigrants in Norway is currently approximately 601,000, which corresponds to 12.2 percent of the total population (2011).^[1] In addition to these, 213,486 are born in Norway with one immigrant parent, 31,540 are born abroad with one Norwegian parent, and 37,056 are born abroad to Norwegian parents (including adopted children). The population of Norway is about 4.9 million. In 2011 the net migration rate was at 42,622. In 2011, of the total 600,922 with immigrant background, 245 751 had Norwegian citizenship (42.1 percent).^[2] The cities or municipalities with the highest share of immigrants are Oslo (27%) and Drammen (22%). The five largest immigrant groups in Norway are in turn Polish, Swedish, Pakistanis, Iraqi and Somali.^[3]

History

Further information: History of Norway

Norway has a long history of immigration. During the Viking era, almost all Norwegian kings sought their wives from foreign countries, thus seeking allies in other royal houses.^[4]

Social and economic innovation has frequently been connected to immigration: the hanseatic league introduced large scale trade in Bergen and Northern Norway. Mining in Kongsberg, Røros and other places was made possible by immigrants from nearby countries, and from ca 1500 until the first university was established in Christiania in 1811, almost all civil servants were immigrants. During the 19th century the evolution of dairies and the industrial exploitation of waterfalls depended on immigrants.^[5]

Contemporary immigration

The main waves of immigrants in the 20th and 21st century were caused by wars and riots in the migrants' home countries: Jews from eastern Europe early in the 20th century, refugees from Hungary in the 1950s, from Chile and Vietnam in the 1970s.^{[citation needed]} In the mid 1980s, there was an increase in the number of asylum seekers from countries such as Iran and Sri Lanka. In the 1990s, war refugees from the Balkans were the predominant immigrant group accepted into Norway; a large number of which have since returned home to Kosovo. Since the end of the 1990s, new groups of asylum seekers from countries such as Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan arrived.^{[citation needed]}

In 2006, Norway received a record 45,800 migrants with 22,100 leaving, for a net immigration of 23,700. This was 30 percent higher than in 2005.^[6]

Demographics

Further information: Demographics of Norway

Population

The number of immigrants in Norway and children of two immigrant parents was in 2010 approximately 552,000 combined, which corresponded to 11.4% of the total population (2010).^[1] In addition to these, 206,627 are born in Norway with one immigrant parent, 30,766 are born abroad with one Norwegian parent, and 36,688 are born abroad to Norwegian parents (including adopted children). In 2009, the Norwegian net migration rate was at 43,346. Of the total 600,922 with immigrant background, 245,751 had Norwegian citizenship (42.1 percent).^[2] The cities or municipalities with the highest share of immigrants in 2010 was Oslo (27 percent) and Drammen (22 percent). According to Reuters, Oslo is the "fastest growing city in Europe because of increased immigration".^[7]

Countries of origin

Rank	Country of origin[8]	Population (2001)[9]	Population (2011)[3]
1.	Poland	6,432	60,610
2.	Sweden	23,010	34,108
3.	Pakistan	23,581	31,884
4.	Iraq	12,357	27,827
5.	Somalia	10,107	27,523
6.	Germany	9,448	24,394
7.	Vietnam	15,880	20,452
8.	Denmark	19,049	19,522
9.	Iran	11,016	16,957
10.	Turkey	10,990	16,430
11.	Lithuania	378	16,309
12.	Bosnia-Herzegovina	12,944	16,125
13.	Russia	3,749	15,879
14.	Philippines	5,885	14,797
15.	Sri Lanka	10,335	14,017
16.	United Kingdom	10,925	13,395
17.	Kosovo	0 [10]	13,303
18.	Thailand	3,738	13,293
19.	Afghanistan	1,346	12,043
20.	India	6,140	10,096
21.	Morocco	5,719	8,305
22.	China, People's Republic of	3,654	7,895
23.	United States	7,253	7,853
24.	Eritrea	813	7,728
25.	Chile	6,491	7,708
26.	Netherlands	3,848	7,251
27.	Finland	6,776	6,626
28.	Iceland	3,756	6,022
29.	Ethiopia	2,803	5,805
30.	Romania	1,054	5,670
31.	Latvia	385	4,979
32.	France	2,350	4,289
33.	Burma	63	3,350
34.	Palestinian Territory	64	3,340
35.	Croatia	1,863	3,327
36.	Macedonia, Republic of	789	3,244
37.	Brazil	824	3,017
38.	Serbia	0 [10]	2,987
39.	Ukraine	399	2,918
40.	Estonia	342	2,871
41.	Bulgaria	842	2,693
42.	Hungary	1,666	2,599
43.	Spain	1,382	2,577
44.	Slovakia	207	2,498
45.	Lebanon	1,613	2,476
46.	Italy	1,265	2,230
47.	Congo, Democratic Republic of	276	2,183
48.	Syria	860	2,163
49.	Ghana	1,355	2,116
50.	Canada	1,120	1,680
51.	Czech Republic	557	1,614
52.	Sudan	433	1,611
53.	Algeria	927	1,525
54.	Gambia	1,050	1,472
55.	Nigeria	541	1,389
56.	Kenya	689	1,344
57.	Colombia	604	1,307
58.	Australia	609	1,294
59.	Switzerland	922	1,242
60.	Indonesia	405	1,237
61.	Portugal	704	1,226
62.	Burundi	69	1,192
63.	Peru	492	1,124
64.	Liberia	29	1,116
65.	Tunisia	648	1,097
66.	Austria	768	1,074
67.	Uganda	501	941
68.	Belgium	595	939
69.	Nepal	157	893
70.	Egypt	413	883
71.	Bangladesh	490	850
72.	Mexico	358	846
73.	Greece	533	834
73.	Hong Kong	742	834
74.	Japan	562	831
75.	South Korea	393	828
76.	South Africa	491	809
77.	Tanzania	464	784
78.	Cuba	286	781
79.	Kazakhstan	60	767
80.	Belarus	134	752
81.	Faroe Islands	770	751
82.	Ireland	445	727
83.	Argentina	378	700
84.	Rwanda	218	688
85.	Dominican Republic	276	648
86.	Venezuela	152	641
87.	Israel	485	630
88.	Sierra Leone	247	574
89.	Albania	156	539
90.	Cameroon	83	534
91.	Malaysia	257	514
92.	Cape Verde	297	505
93.	Cambodia	277	500
94.	Azerbaijan	95	476
95.	New Zealand	252	453
96.	Jordan	144	436
97.	Angola	96	434
98.	Moldova	43	376
99.	Ecuador	174	375
99.	Montenegro	0 [10]	375
100.	Singapore	220	366
101.	Kuwait	133	359
102.	Uzbekistan	35	355
103.	Libya	62	329
104.	Zambia	114	324
105.	Côte d'Ivoire	110	269
106.	Saudi Arabia	47	264
107.	Trinidad and Tobago	204	263
108.	Yemen	51	259
109.	Bhutan	10	253
110.	Armenia	47	251
111.	Georgia	47	248
112.	Bolivia	134	245
113.	Slovenia	53	238
114.	Taiwan	113	227
115.	Senegal	83	220
116.	Mauritius	181	214
117.	Madagascar	141	212
118.	Zimbabwe	119	210
119.	El Salvador	134	202
119.	United Arab Emirates	33	202
120.	Uruguay	167	197
121.	Guinea	39	175
122.	Congo, Republic of	60	164
122.	Kyrgyzstan	6	164
123.	Guatemala	81	162
124.	Jamaica	73	147
125.	Nicaragua	78	137
126.	Togo	80	135
127.	Mozambique	72	128
128.	Honduras	64	103

Religion

Further information: Religion in Norway

Immigration has altered the religious demography of Norway, with Islam now the second largest religion with up to 163,000 adherents, accounting for about 3.4% of the total population (2009).^[11] Other religions which have increased mainly as a result of recent post-war immigration (with adherents in parenthesis), include Roman Catholicism (1.2%/4.7%), Hinduism (0.5%), Buddhism (0.4%), Orthodoxy (0.2%) and Bahá'í Faith (<0.1%).

Among the immigrants, 250,030 have background from Christian countries, 119,662 from Muslim countries, 28,942 from Buddhist countries, and 7,224 from Hindu countries.^[12]

Employment

The unemployment rate for foreign-born Norwegians is 9.2 percent, compared to a figure of 2.1 percent for the general population.^[13]

Effects of immigration

Demographic

Since 1970, the immigrant population from Nordic countries and Western Europe has increased modestly from around 50,000 to around 120,000. In the same time frame however, the immigrant population from outside these regions, has increased dramatically from barely anything to more than 420,000 (137,572 from Eastern Europe, and 284,246 from Asia, Africa and South America). During the course of the first four-year term of the ruling Red-Green Coalition government (2005–2009), the immigrant population of Norway increased by 41 percent, or 143,300 persons. From 2000 to 2010, 510,748 persons received permanent residence permits.^[14]

Language

Further information: Kebab Norwegian

Legal and administration issues

Further information: Norwegian nationality law

The Directorate of Immigration (UDI) is responsible for the administration of immigration into the country.^[15] Before the UDI was established in 1998, several government organisations were involved in administrating immigration.^[16] Another body, Integrerings- og mangfoldsdirektoratet (IMDi) (Directorate of Integration and Diversity), "contribute[s] to equality in living conditions and diversity through employment, integration and participation".^[17]

See also

• List of countries by immigrant population

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents". Statistics Norway. 28 April 2011. Accessed 7 August 2011. Archived 7 August 2011.
2. ^ ^{a b} "Five different delimitations of persons with immigration background/foreign background, by citizenship and immigrant category". Statistics Norway. 28 April 2011. Accessed 7 August 2011. Archived 7 August 2011.
3. ^ ^{a b} "Persons with immigrant background, by immigration category, country background and gender". Statistics Norway. 28 April 2011. Accessed 7 August 2011. Archived 7 August 2011.
4. ^ From Harald Finehair to Håkon Håkonsson eight out of ten known queens were princesses from neighbouring countries. Steinar Imsen. Våre dronninger (Norwegian). Grøndahl og Dreyer. 1991. ISBN 82-09-10678-3
5. ^ Knut Kjeldstadli. Norsk innvandringshistorie (Norwegian). Pax, 2003. ISBN 82-530-2541-6
6. ^ "Immigration to Norway increasing". workpermit.com. 8 May 2007. Accessed 22 July 2011. Archived 7 August 2011.
7. ^ Hare, Sophie. "Factbox – facts about Norway". Reuters. 22 July 2011. Accessed 22 July 2011.
8. ^ Immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents
9. ^ "Innvandrarbefolkninga og personar med annan innvandringsbakgrunn, etter innvandringskategori, kjønn og landbakgrunn. 1. januar 2001". Statistics Norway. http://www.ssb.no/innvbef/arkiv/tab-2001-10-29-05.html.  (Norwegian)
10. ^ ^{a b c} 15,469 from Yugoslavia
11. ^ Leirvik, Oddbjørn. "slam i Norge". Google translation. University of Oslo. 2008. Accessed 7 August 2011.
12. ^ "De fleste innvandrerne er kristne" Google translation. NRK. 9 December 2009. Accessed 7 August 2011.
13. ^ Berry; John W.; Phinney, Jean S.; Sam, David L.; Vedder, Paul. (eds) (2006). Immigrant Youth in Cultural Transition: Acculturation, Identity, and Adaptation Across National Contexts. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. pp. 33–34.
14. ^ "Norway received 500,000 immigrants in 10 years". norwaypost.no. Accessed 7 August 2011.
15. ^ "About UDI". Directorate of Immigration. Accessed 22 July 2011. Archived 7 August 2011.
16. ^ "A brief history of the UDI". Directorate of Immigration. 6 May 2004. Accessed 22 July 2011. Archived 7 August 2011.
17. ^ "About IMDi". Directorate of Integration and Diversity. Accessed 22 July 2011.

Further reading

• "9 Migration policy". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Norway). 2008. Accessed 7 August 2011.
• "Population statistics. Immigration and emigration, 2010". Statistics Norway. Accessed 22 July 2011.
• "Overview 2008: How well is integration working?"PDF (714 KB). Directorate of Integration and Diversity. 18 May 2009. Accessed 22 July 2011. Archived 22 July 2011. See webpage.
• "Immigrants in the Norwegian media"PDF (765 KB). Directorate of Integration and Diversity. 7 April 2010. Accessed 22 July 2011. Archived 22 July 2011. See webpage.

External links

• Directorate of Immigration
• Integrerings- og mangfoldsdirektoratet (Directorate of Integration and Diversity)