Immigrants do not think health care services are good enough.
Refugees in Norway believe they receive worse follow-up from doctors here than in their home country.
(Illustration: Terje Pedersen / NTB)
Thirty thousand
people emigrate from Norway every year. The majority of them are immigrants who
later return to their home country. Young Europeans leave the most often.
One of the
reasons that emigrants give for moving from Norway is dissatisfaction with the
Norwegian health care system.
I didn’t
like the communication with my GP. I asked him about some tests I used to take
in Ukraine. The doctor said that there was no reason to send me to a specialist
at this stage. But in Ukraine, there was always a specialist who checked me.
(From an
interview with a refugee, NIBR
report 2023:11)
Healthcare is
not the only reason – and rarely the most important one – that people choose to
leave Norway, but it is mentioned as one of several reasons.
Aadne Aasland is a researcher for NIBR at OsloMet.
(Photo: Benjamin A. Ward / OsloMet)
Dissatisfaction among all immigrant groups
Aadne Aasland studies
welfare, migration and integration at OsloMet.
He is involved with
a large research project on emigration from Norway titled ExitNorway.
The researchers
were surprised that Norwegian health services are more often seen as a reason
to leave than to stay.
“We were
surprised when we saw this tendency in the results of our surveys and
interviews. We found dissatisfaction with health services among all immigrant groups,”
Aasland says.
One immigrant
believes that the best solution is to go to France or Germany to get necessary
medical care. Others believe that they can get better and cheaper health
insurance services in the United States through an employer.
Norwegians have positive experiences
Most Norwegians
are satisfied with the healthcare services in this country.
A large
majority of patients are satisfied with their GP, whom they find to be
professionally competent and who takes them seriously, even if the wait for an
appointment can be too long. These findings are from a survey
by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) (in Norwegian).
Eighty-one
percent of the survey participants in Kantar’s
annual health policy barometer report good or very good experiences with
the healthcare service. It is true that a third of the respondents say that
they have not received the necessary healthcare in the past year, and many fear
that capacity will worsen in the years to come.
Norway scores
better than other countries for people with chronic diseases, who report good
experiences and results. Patients’ trust in the healthcare system is high, according
to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (in Norwegian).
Not taken seriously
Aasland has
worked most with Ukrainians, both those who come to Norway and those who return
home.
When asked
about various Norwegian welfare services, health services were rated low
compared to schools, kindergartens and education.
Thirty percent
of Ukrainians in Norway say that they themselves or someone in their close
family has a serious health problem. They are satisfied with the medical care
they receive, according
to an NIBR report from 2024.
Otherwise, much
of the dissatisfaction among Ukrainians is that they are not taken seriously by
doctors.
Better and faster help in their home country
“They
experience the GP as a gatekeeper who blocks the way to specialists and
medicines that patients feel they need,” says Aasland.
Norway comes up
short when Ukrainians compare their home country’s healthcare services with
Norway’s. They experience frustration and feel vulnerable. To get help, they
contact doctors in Ukraine.
“They are
surprised that we wait so long to seek help. They tend to go to the doctor more
quickly, even with minor things like colds,” says Aasland.
Not only
Ukrainians expect more help. Other immigrants also experience their home
country’s health care system as more efficient and more willing to hand out
medication.
“In particular,
they expect doctors to prescribe them antibiotics. Norway is quite restrictive
about that,” says Aasland.
Culture crash
Aasland calls
it a culture crash.
“The threshold
for seeing a doctor and specialist is much higher in Norway than in Ukraine, for example, and this also applies to the use
of medication.”
Aasland
believes it could be useful to address the topic in the introductory programme
that refugees receive when they come to Norway.
“In that
setting, more information about how things are done in Norwegian society and
what to expect could be explained.”
Not all of the
immigrants who were interviewed were dissatisfied with the health system in
Norway. One of them can relate to how Norway’s health system works:
I don’t like
going to the doctor. I do like the Norwegians do and treat myself with water.
Reference:
Aadne Aasland
and Oleksandra Deineko: Why
Exit? Exploring the Motivations of Displaced Ukrainians Leaving Norway.
Central and Eastern European Migration Review, 2025. Doi: 10.54667/ceemr.2025.11
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Translated by Ingrid P. Nuse