In 2016, 58 500 foreigners immigrated to Norway, 600 fewer than in the previous year. Overall, 46% were women, although the gender ratio varied by origin country: for instance, migrants from Thailand and the Philippines were mostly women (around 80%), while those from Afghanistan and Syria were mostly men (75% and 63%, respectively). Total net migration, including Norwegians, was 21 300, its lowest level since 2012.
Approximately 40% of the foreign immigrants came from EU countries, a drop of 10 percentage points compared to 2015. For the first time, Syria was the primary country of origin with over 11 200 immigrants in 2016 (+7 000 compared to 2015), followed by Poland (6 000) and Eritrea (2 700).
For the first time since 2005, family immigration represented the largest entry category, with one third of the total. The main groups of family migrants were from Syria, Poland, Thailand and Eritrea. More than three times as many family-related permits were granted to Syrians in 2016 than in 2015.
Around 30% of registered immigrants received a permit following an asylum application or having arrived through the annual resettlement quota (3 200 offers in 2016). Most of these were from Syria (63%). The number of new asylum seekers fell sharply from 2015 (31 000) to 2016 (3 500) and 2017 (3 600, of which 1 250 relocated from Italy and Greece). A similar trend was recorded for unaccompanied minors: only 320 asylum applications were registered in 2016 compared to almost 5 500 in the previous year.
Labour migration, the single largest category of entry, accounted for 28% of total non-Nordic immigration in 2016, led by Poland and Lithuania. Net Nordic migration was negative for the first time in years. The remaining 8% of immigrants had been granted permits for education, training, cultural exchanges and au pairs.
In 2016, the Norwegian police returned almost 8 100 foreigners without legal residence. About a third of them were asylum applicants being expelled following the Dublin procedure or former asylum seekers whose applications had been rejected. An additional 1 500 migrants returned to their countries through voluntary assisted return.
Almost 13 700 persons were naturalised in 2016, a 10% increase since 2015. The major countries of former citizenship were Eritrea (1 900), Somalia (1 200) and Afghanistan (1 000). Almost one third of all new citizens were children under 18 years of age; the share of children was particularly high among Eritreans (38%).
Following the rising number of asylum seekers entering Norway in 2015, several legislative amendments were adopted by the Norwegian parliament both to strengthen border control and ensure a more sustainable immigration policy. The major measures entering into force during 2016/17 included a reform to the family migration policy. According to this policy, an application for family immigration can be rejected if the sponsor has been granted protection in Norway without a permanent residence permit and if it is deemed that the family may exercise their life in another safe country where their social ties are stronger. In addition, when submitting an application for family reunification, the deadline for refugees to be exempted from the subsistence requirement was lowered from one year to six months. In cases of family establishment, both spouses have to be at least 24 years old, with possible exceptions if the union is clearly voluntary.
Conditions for obtaining a permanent residence permit have also changed. Since January 2017, a minimum level of spoken Norwegian and a knowledge test of Norwegian society are required. Permanent residence applications may now be rejected in case of conflict with important concerns related to the regulation of migration.
A number of new integration measures were adopted in 2016 and 2017. For instance, Norway has started developing recognition procedures for certain secondary and tertiary vocational education. By 2017, recognition procedures have been implemented for 15 vocational training programmes in Poland, Germany, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Furthermore, given the difficulty for workers in regulated professions to find suitable jobs, since August 2017 the government has established new bridging courses for foreign-trained nurses and teachers. Similar courses are being developed for refugees with science or technology qualifications to increase their attractiveness to Norwegian employers.
Education policies for migrants have been further developed with an amendment to the Education Act, declaring that all children are entitled to primary and lower secondary education as soon as possible and no later than within one month. Similarly, adult migrants with completed upper secondary education from abroad – which is not recognised in Norway – obtained the right to free upper secondary education.
In June 2017, the parliament adopted a new comprehensive Equality and Anti-Discrimination Act, consolidating several anti-discrimination legislations into one. A new Anti-Discrimination Tribunal has been established to handle complaints.
