Minority and majority in Norway
Minority and majority in Norway
People have always moved around the world. One fairly recent example is emigration from Europe to America. More than 30 million Europeans moved there from 1820 to 1930. Around 800,000 people emigrated from Norway alone.
The majority of people who live in Norway are of Norwegian descent. Many immigrants have come to Norway in the past 60 years. Some have come as refugees and others have come to find work. They have come from Europe and from the rest of the world.
Going into 2024, 5.4 million people live in Norway. More than one million of them were born abroad or have parents who were born abroad. That constitutes approx. 20 per cent of the population of Norway. Around half of the immigrants in Norway have Norwegian citizenship. The biggest groups of immigrants come from Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Sweden and Syria. There are immigrants living in all the municipalities in Norway. However, more immigrants live in the cities than in the countryside.
National minorities
Several ethnic groups living in Norway have a connection to the country that goes back centuries. We call these groups national minorities. These national minorities are
- Sami
- Jews
- Kven
- Forest Finns
- Roma
- Romani/tater
Source: regjeringen.no
Norway ratified an agreement on national minorities’ rights in 1999. This agreement sets out that the central government is obliged to enable people who belong to national minorities to preserve and develop their culture, including religion, language, traditions and cultural heritage.
Integration
Norway’s political goal is to be a society where the majority and minorities can live well together and feel a sense of belonging and affiliation to the country we all live in. The main goal of integration policy is for immigrants and their children to also be able to use their resources and contribute to society in line with the majority population. One of the keys to ensuring this is that everyone who lives in Norway has good Norwegian language skills.
Talk together
- Is there much immigration to or emigration from your country of origin?
- Why do people move from their home countries?
- Why do you think more immigrants live in the cities than in the countryside?
- In some cities, there are city districts where a large proportion of the residents are immigrants. Why do you think that is the case? Do you think this is a positive thing? Why or why not?
- Should immigrants learn the language of the country they move to? Why or why not?
- Should immigrants start to think or live like the people in the country they move to? Why or why not?
- Are there national minorities in your home country?
- Talk about the central government’s responsibility to take steps to preserve national minorities’ culture.
Select the right answer
Around how many people in Norway were born abroad or have parents who were born abroad?
Select the right answer
Where do most immigrants live?
Complete the sentence
In order for immigrants to use their resources, it is important that they have ...
Select right or wrong
Read the statements. What is right? What is wrong?
Select right or wrong
Read the statements. What is right? What is wrong?