More than 15,000 people who received help from child welfare in 2017 were either immigrants or had immigrant family backgrounds.
28% had immigrant backgrounds. In 2013, this share was 24%. In total, 8,700 immigrants and 6,850 Norwegian-born with immigrant parents received help from the child welfare service last year, showed figures from Statistics Norway (SSB).
SSB also pointed out that the composition of those with immigrant backgrounds had changed somewhat over the past five years. Despite the refugee flow in 2015, the percentage of Norwegians-born to immigrant parents had increased from 42 to 44%, while the percentage of immigrants had decreased accordingly.
According to SSB, the explanation is likely to be partly linked to the different age composition between immigrants and Norwegians born to immigrant parents.
A total of 18% of children and adolescents between 0 and 22 had immigrant backgrounds at the turn of the year. While 54 of 1,000 immigrants under the age of 23 received help from child welfare at the end of last year, the proportion of 32,000 was for Norwegian’s born to immigrant parents.
There was also a clear difference in the percentage of children and adolescents who received child welfare measures when looking at the countries from which they came. 75 of 1,000 immigrants from Asia and Africa received help last year, while the number was 37 out of 1,000 for Norwegians born to immigrants. 20 of 1,000 immigrants from the EU, EEA, Switzerland, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand received help from child welfare in 2017, while the percentage was 13 out of 1,000 for those with parents from those countries.
© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today
