A strict policy on family immigration is a barrier to good integration.
“It helps to inhibit the integration process,” said senior researcher,Helga Eggebø at Nordlandsforskning to NRK news.
Along with migration researcher,Jan-Paul Brekke, at the Department of Social Research, she has undertaken several major analyses of the relationship between family reunification and integration from, among others, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, as well as the United States and Australia.
‘’Firstly, it is documented that strict policy has negative consequences for integration, refugees, children and others. Secondly, it will in many cases delay the integration process, and it also prevents integration,” Eggebø pointed out.
One of the findings was that the reasons for tightening the policy regarding family reunification were often similar to each other. Throughout Europe, considerations of integration are used as an argument to tighten the rules for family immigration. New conditions such as income requirements,integration tests, language requirements, age limits and attachment requirements have been introduced in a number of European countries in recent years.
However, there is very little evidence that strict conditions for family immigration provide better integration, the Norwegian researchers concluded.
“But studies show that being separated from the family is one of the most
traumatising experience people can have. And it is not hard to imagine that poor mental health provides poorer prerequisites for integration,” said Eggebø.
© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today
