Massive support for Labour among minorities

Hadia Tajik and Mani Hussaini.Labor Party.Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB scanpix

AP appeals to the uneducated, FrP to Eastern Europe

almost six out of ten immigrants with backgrounds from Africa, Asia and Latin America vote for the Labour Party (Ap), according to Statistics Norway (SSB).

 

Among immigrants from European countries, the support for Labour (Arbeiderpartiet) is on par with the rest.

In this group, support for the Government parties is slightly higher than the support for Labour. Among foreign nationals from the EEA countries in Eastern Europe, the support for the Progress Party is twice as big as in the rest of the population.

The support for the socialist parties diminishes the higher the education level co-relating Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The vast majority of those with primary education as the highest level of education – eight out of ten vote for AP, SV or Red.

For those who have finished high school, the affinity is 70 per cent, whereas 60 percent of those with college or university education support these parties.

Men more left-wing than women

The Labour Party’s affinity is lower among people whose country of origin is Vietnam, Iran and Turkey. At the same time, the Conservatives is doing relatively well among people from Vietnam and Turkey.

Another finding is that among people with immigrant backgrounds from Africa and Asia, men are distinctly more leftish than women as opposed to Norwegian born, were the opposite is the case.

In 2015, 14 per cent of the voters had immigrant backgrounds. At local elections in Norway, foreign citizens with a minimum of three years of legal residence have been entitled to vote since 1983.

Low electoral participation

However, the electoral participation in the immigrant background group is low. For immigrants who have become Norwegian citizens, the election participation was 40 percent.

Among the Norwegian born with two immigrant parents, it was 38 percent. For foreign nationals, which are mostly EEA immigrants, the election participation was 29 per cent.
The total election participation at the last local election was 60 percent.

Election participation among persons without immigrant background was 64 per cent.

The number of voters with immigrant backgrounds is increasing, and projections of the crowd show that the figure will continue to increase in the coming years. In Oslo, almost one in three has a voting immigrant background.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today