The increase in asylum applicants gave jobs to 170 of 200 of UDI interviewees

The increase in asylum applicants gave jobsOslo:The head office of the Directorate of Immigration (UDI) Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB scanpix

UDI have doubled their number of officers in two months. It has provided jobs for many newly graduated  social scientists and lawyers.

When the number of asylum seekers coming to Norway was multiplied in the autumn of 2015, the Immigration Departement (UDI) started a large-scale recruitment, the newspaper Dagens Næringsliv writes. In October a number of positions were  advertised, demanding a masters degree, and over 700 applicants responded.

200 people were interviewed and  170 of those were hired  as social workers in the directorate. The bulk of them were social scientists and lawyers, many of them graduates.

In this way the refugee crisis meant that several graduates who had struggled to get a job found a solution to their problem. Social anthropologist Linda Tang had been seeking work for a year before she got a job at UDI.

– A social scientist often  falls between two stools. I’ve been in interviews where I have been asked about my master education, but where I feel they are hinting at “why do  you want to work with us when we do not require as long education?”. At other places they are interested in the education, but call for more relevant work experience, she says to DN.

The stack of asylum applications increased from 11,480 in 2014 to 31,145 in 2015. With the appointments also waiting UDI to process 21,000 cases during 2016.

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today