Refugees keenest to become Norwegian citizens
Statistics Norway confirms what most would take for granted. While refugees, especially from Asia and Africa, change their nationality to Norwegian, European labour migrants retain their original citizenship.
A total of 70 per cent of immigrants from Asia who came to Norway in the period 1968 to 2017, were granted Norwegian citizenship between 1977 and 2017, the figures from Statistics Norway (SSB) reveal. Especially in the mid-90s, it was very common for refugees from Iran, Vietnam and Sri Lanka to change their citizenship.
African refugees come into second place, with 69 per cent changing to the coveted little red book as proof of nationality. Of these, Somalis account for 54 per cent in the period 2003–2017. From European countries outside the EU/EEA, the proportion is 56 per cent.
European labour immigrants also change to Norwegian citizenship, but to a much lesser extent than others. The figures for this group in the period 1990 to 2017 show that only 3 per cent of those coming from the EU/EEA countries switched to Norwegian citizenship.
Statistics Norway believes that this is due to a good number of the latter planning to return to their country of origin or move on to another EU/EEA country later.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
