Less 30% labor immigrants in 2023-2024
The number of new labor immigrants has dropped sharply, especially from Poland, which used to send the most workers. Improved economies and the weak Norwegian krone makes working in Norway less financially attractive. Many who are already in Norway work in physically demanding, low-paid jobs with little opportunity for advancement, and some choose to return home. Researchers also point out that having a job does not guarantee integration, since many immigrants receive little language training or support.
Labour immigrants from the EU have had very limited access to the integration measures that refugees and other immigrants receive. They have not gone through any introduction programme to Norway. They have not had the right to Norwegian language training.
– EU labour immigrants have been called “the immigrants who were expected to manage on their own.”
Do you notice this? I absolutely do and I think it really is a shame.
by Hoax_Debunk
14 comments
They came for the money.
Once the money is not so good, they leave.
What do you want me to say?
I dont care anymore about foreign labor, than they do about me.
As you say, their influx drove wages for low skill jobs down the drain + worse working conditions, like hotel maids having to do 9 rooms an hour, compared to 5 in 1999.*
*example is pure illustration.
Hopefully less demand for those jobs can improve labour conditions for those still in Norway working, at least
What kind of integration do EU workers need?
It’s not like the Norwegians are trying very hard to keep them. As a foreign worker in Norway I’ve noticed that there is a parallel society that emerges.
For one, unless you’re refugee or the spouse of a Norwegian you have to pay for your own required language classes. I think if you want people to integrate and stay, you should offer them for free like Sweden does.
Another thing I realized at work is that a lot of my Norwegian colleagues are comparatively lazy. Not saying that they are lazy in a negative way, we’d probably call it work life balance. But I would say they were lazy in a planned way. I can’t say this is all Norwegians, of course. But I did notice that they spent very little effort hammering out a real plan and sticking to it, but spent a lot of time discussing developing a plan.
Another thing I noticed, the foreign workers do the majority of the work but have very little say in how things are done. If I take initiative and start working on a plan or ask the manager to set down some structure, I’m often met with “that’s not how we do it here.” In my mind so many of the mistakes that are made week to week would be solved by just saying “no” to some people and laying down a plan for success. Yet, they would prefer to react all the time. It was exhausting.
The company culture is really Norwegian too, which I accept. But again, they recruited me here knowing I’m a foreigner and I accept my role in learning how things work here. However, Norwegians do not make it easy at all. There is a real safeguard on the culture and similarly an unreasonably high expectation that foreigners should just “get it.”
I don’t think my Norwegian colleagues were mean or deliberately confusing. I honestly think they just don’t know how to deal with people from outside of Norway very well. Keep in mind I live in Stavanger, and yes you’d think they’d have a little more exposure to other cultures but this is the biggest small town I’ve ever lived in.
In the end it felt like, “you’re the foreigner, do all the work and don’t ask questions. Yes, you have 25 days off a year isn’t that great. No I’m not going to actually plan our work. Yes I am going to Siradal to ski at my cabin. You don’t know how it works here because you’re not from here. No, I’m not going to explain it to you.”
Immigration is hard. I’m from outside the EU and came here 3.5 years ago for a master’s degree. I brought my husband and young son with me. Despite getting a job offer that should have qualified as «skilled», earning more than the minimum amount needed to support ourselves becoming fluent in Norwegian and having my son fully integrated, we were denied residency by UDI and have to move back.
It sucks to read about how Norway needs more labor, that the job I had struggles to find qualified workers and then still get rejected in the end.
I still love Norway, but holy hell is it hard to get in.
then tell someone to hire me >:[ been applying to every Network and System admin job i can find for almost a year now.
I’ve been here 12 years. My salary in NOK has nearly doubled since I started. Converted to USD, it has been moving between -25% and +5%. Since we import pretty much everything, it means that we suffered a 100% inflation in 12 years.
Salaries in other places don’t look so bad anymore, and work culture isn’t to everyone’s taste, so immigration slows down.
Don’t worry. Our current gov’t coalition is going to make sure to make up for that with refugees from middle eastern countries.
Working immigration is a positive to society.
Refugees are not in most cases.
Come here and work, we don’t care. Its great.
Come here to take advantage of welfare, gtfo…
I’m an EU immigrant and got my Norwegian course offered by my company but know several others immigrants from my country that wished take Norwegian courses but they were very expensive and during work hours so they had to choose to either attend the course and stay out of job or work but fail the course due to lack of attendance. They then isolate themselves in their community because they never manage to integrate properly.
Nav
Says more about the decline of the west than anything. We might have to escape to Poland, Hungary etc. if the trend continues. Many Germans, Brits and so on have done so already! Let’s not forget that they’re here for the money, no one wants to live in a Feminist-Communist hellhole!
When it comes to integration, a lot of the programs that exists were established piecemeal over the last three decades to put out “fires”, in particular the low employment rate among non-EU immigrants. The programs, including the language courses, aren’t charities to the immigrants, they’re desperate attempts to increase the employment rate and appease Norwegian voters concerned about immigration.
EU labour immigrants already have jobs and they don’t concern xenophobic people the same way, hence there’s zero incentive for the Norwegian government to spend money on integrating these immigrants. Their view is that these immigrants arrived at the behest of the private sector, not through an obligation the government has to the international community, and therefore, these immigrants aren’t their responsibility.
Plus, the vast majority aren’t staying for life anyway, even when working here was more profitable. Most are only here to work off and on for a few years, then return home, and offering expensive integration measures to people who are here to work 2-3 years in the service industry makes little sense.
From the Norwegian government’s perspective, the idea of solving any kind of societal problems with immigration is like giving a pain killer for cancer. It’s an impermanent solution reliant on a lot of variables outside their control – for example the average pay in Poland. This is why they have to solve the skilled-workers-crisis through other means, like tweaking the education system.
I don’t think the government is going to do anything whatsoever to keep labour immigrants here. Their view is that if the Norwegian private sector can’t recruit everyone they need with the current salaries, they either have to cough up more money or go bust.
What about all the immigrants living on nav? How is it possible then? Norway need skilled workers.
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