Townships reject more refugees

Many local municipalities in Norway are refusing to accept more refugees, and struggling with what they say are the “skyrocketing” costs of integration. Only one in five has taken in as many refugees as the state government wished. Many of Norway’s municipalities (kommuner) believe that the government is trying to settle too many refugees, according [...]

Star wants third ‘Lilyhammer’ season

Steven Van Zandt, the American singer and musician who’s also been starring in the Norwegian TV series “Lilyhammer,” says he’d like to make yet another season of the popular show that’s now airing around the world. He also thinks Norwegian TV and film production should have more international exposure. Van Zandt, who’s been back in [...]

Great outdoors at the ‘cultural core’

After a week of media debate over what comprises the core of Norwegian culture comes an answer based on 17,000 votes and 500 proposals submitted by the readers of the country’s largest newspaper: Norwegians thrive best when they’re trekking through the country’s great outdoors. The debate itself was criticized for being set in motion by a [...]

Immigrants face tougher rules

Persons trying move to Norway for work or family reasons from countries outside Europe now face even tougher regulations. Income issues have been hindering or even halting would-be immigrants in recent months, including a young American who has a Norwegian wife and a baby born in Norway. Only citizens of countries tied to the European [...]

‘Little Steven’ back in Norway

American musician and actor Steven Van Zandt, best known as “Little Steven” in Bruce Springsteen’s band, is back in Norway and working on the second season of the popular Lilyhammer TV series for Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) and Netflix. This year they have a bigger budget, reported NRK on Thursday. Filming of the next batch of [...]

Debate flies over Norwegian culture

NEWS ANALYSIS: Norwegians have a long and deeply embedded culture of debate. Now a right-wing politician, an admittedly bored journalist and several major media outlets have managed to stir up new debate over Norwegian culture itself. Some view the debate as manufactured and misconstrued, with undertones of pure provocation. It all started last month, when [...]

‘Christian schools OK, not Muslim schools’

Norway’s conservative Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet, Frp) wants to make it easier to establish private schools in the country, but not those that would appeal to Muslim students. “It must be allowed to consider the need for integration when screening applications,” Frp’s spokesman on education issues, Tord Lien, told newspaper Aftenposten this week. Establishment of new [...]

Siblings won right to stay in Norway

A brother and sister who emigrated from Pakistan to Norway with their mother when they were just three and four years old finally won the right to reside permanently in Norway this week, from the International Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The high court agree that deportation of Abbas and Fozia Butt, now young [...]

Palace revokes medal to Linstad

Norway’s Royal Palace announced Thursday afternoon that it was revoking the king’s service medal that it had awarded to Trond Ali Linstad, a converted Norwegian Muslim who has helped further integration of immigrants in Oslo but also is widely viewed as being anti-Semitic. The palace said that Linstad’s own stated views could not be reconciled [...]

‘Nynorsk’ said to boost creativity

Learning to write in both of the Norwegian language’s two official forms (bokmål and nynorsk) boosts creativity and helps when learning other languages, a new survey shows. The two forms are different enough to be like learning two separate languages and confer the same benefits as being bilingual. The survey results, however, were only welcomed by [...]

Norwegian firms called ‘racist’

A leading Norwegian headhunter who recruits engineers and other skilled workers for Norwegian oil and oil-service companies says he’s encountered a “shocking” degree of what he calls blatant “racism” among prospective Norwegian employers. Even those in dire need of engineers and other specialists routinely turn down top foreign job candidates. They want Norwegians instead. Erik [...]

Immigrant employment ‘misleading’

Human Rights Service (HRS), an Oslo-based foundation that studies immigration and integration, is accusing the Norwegian government of presenting a misleading picture of immigrant employment levels in Norway. HRS claims that full-time employment among those from countries outside western Europe and North America is much lower than officially portrayed. Only 57 percent of those described [...]

OSCE scolds Norway for intolerance

The UN ad hoc organization OSCE, charged with trying to head off and resolve conflicts in Europe, has criticized Norwegian officials for failing to address alleged intolerance towards Muslims and Jews in Norway. News of the criticism came just as Norway planned to file a formal protest against Israel for arresting four Norwegians as they [...]

Concerns rise over Norwegians fighting in Syria

Norwegian authorities believe at least seven and possibly as many as 100 Norwegian citizens have headed to Syria to take part in its ongoing civil war. They fear, as do many parents of young Muslim men with sympathy for the opposition forces in Syria, that they’ll be more radical when they return. Lt Gen Kjell [...]

Immigrants gain more acceptance

There was a marked increase in the numbers of immigrants taking part in last month’s 17th of May celebrations in Oslo, and a new survey helps explain why. Many are feeling more accepted and included, especially since the terrorist attacks of July 22, while the survey shows that more Norwegians are now less critical to [...]

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