Refugee youth unhappy in Tromso
Refugee youths consider northerners to be unaccomodating and Tromsø to be dark and cold, according to a doctoral thesis.
– The Arctic rhetoric in the stories told about Tromsø by its inhabitants belies the experiences of the refugees coming there; namely negative experiences with cold, snow, ice, dark, deserted streets and a lack of social meetings, fellow Marianne Brekke at the University of Tromsø (UiT) writes in her thesis.
Brekke has followed young refugees over several years in order to see how they create coherence in their lives and existence in Tromsø, NRK writes.
– The statistics are very clear for all of North Norway. Many of the refugees who are living in the north, move to eastern Norway eventually, Brekke says.
The refugees told in interviews that they experienced tromsø people in general as unaccommodating, dismissive and rude.
The experiences have led to the refugees seeking out others who were in the same situation. After a few years in the city, selected almost all the young people chose to leave for other parts of the country.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
