Countryside most positive to integration

integration womenWoman looking at Integration. Photo: SCANPIX

People in rural villages think to a greater degree than urban residents that immigrants are well integrated, a new survey shows.

About half of those living in country villages agree fully or partially with the statement “Immigrants are well integrated into my community”, according to a survey from the Norwegian Center for Rural Research.

– Sensational
Whilst 48 per cent of the people in the villages responded in a positive way, the percentage is down to 36 per cent for people in more urban municipalities, writes Adresseavisen.

“This is quite sensational. In general, we do not find such big differences in attitudes between people rural villages and people in more urban municipalities, says sociologist and researcher Alexander Thanem at the Norwegian Center for Rural Research.

He draws attention to employment and visibility as two possible explanations.

Immigrants in rural municipalities are increasingly employed, and employment is important for integration and for how people perceive that immigrants are integrated.

Poor overview
In larger municipalities you also have a poorer overview, and this can lead to immigrants not being seen in the same way.

Figures from Statistics Norway showed last summer that scepticism towards immigrants has increased in the wake of the major asylum arrivals in autumn 2015.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today

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