Immigrants constitute an increasing proportion of municipal care workers. Last year they accounted for more than 17 percent of 142,000 annual contracts, shows in new statistics.
Eight years ago, the corresponding share was at 11 percent, figures from Statistics Norway (SSB).
Since then, the number of immigrant workers has increased by 11,000, which corresponds to an increase of 80 percent, according to Statistics Norway. At the same time, the municipal care services have increased the number of fulltime employees in recent years.
“There is a clear tendency for immigrants to account for the largest share of this net increase, SSB writes. Among the employees from the rest of the population, the number of fulltime employees in the sector has increased by 8.300.
The care workers with immigrant background come from different corners of the world. The largest group comes from Asia, with Eastern Europe in second and Africa in third place.
At the same time, the percentage of care workers from other countries in the Nordic and Western Europe has declined.
© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today
