Norway falls out of top 10 on international integration index

Queen Sonja - Fakhra Salimi - Houria Hajji - Khansa Ali - Gavie NassiepPhoto / Illustration: Mariam Butt / NTB

Norway has fallen out of the top ten on an international index that measures how inclusive and generous a country’s integration policy is.

“Norway’s drop in the MIPEX score is mainly due to the government introducing stricter requirements for, among other things, income and language skills in order to obtain a permanent residence permit in 2017,” researcher Jan-Paul Brekke at the Norwegian Institute for Social Research noted.

Since 2014, the institute has reported to MIPEX on integration policy in Norway. 

Norway’s score on the index has fallen from 72 in 2014 to 69 in 2019, which means that the country has fallen out of the top ten on the list.

Nevertheless, according to the research institute, Norway is well within the average among the 52 countries included in the index.

Brekke emphasized that the index does not evaluate how well-integrated immigrants in Norway actually are.

Higher opportunities

“Norway’s results can all in all be said to reflect a political choice, where the desire for a restrictive immigration policy has an impact on rights related to integration,” Brekke noted.

Norway scored somewhat lower than the average on rights but far higher on opportunities.

The countries included in the index are all EU and EEA countries, in addition to countries such as Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Turkey, and the USA.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today

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