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Local Norway
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Local Norway
Norway's Progress Party wants zero net immigration from 'high-risk countries'
Immigration policy spokesperson for the populist-right Progress Party Erlend Wiborg made the comments to the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten on Friday ahead of the party's national conference at the weekend. 'Our goal is zero net immigration from high-risk countries,' he said. Wiborg said countries in the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia could be described as 'high-risk' as the party believes refugees from these countries present integration challenges related to crime, low employment, use of public benefits and social segregation. 'Over time, Norway has accepted far too many immigrants from such countries. It is not sustainable and imposes enormous costs on taxpayers. We see ever-growing problems related to crime and segregation. The experiences from Sweden are frightening,' he told the paper. His comments on Sweden referred to an increase in gang crime in recent years, which politicians in both Sweden and Norway opposed to immigration attribute to failed integration and increased immigration. Last year, ordinary 4,970 asylum applications were handed into the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI). However, Norway also has a fast-track 'collective protection' asylum scheme for those fleeing the war in Ukraine, with 90,082 asylum seekers from the Ukraine having been granted this status since the war broke out in 2022 . Wiborg said the Progress Party would prioritise Christian refugees. Wiborg said the party wanted to measure how well local authorities were integrating arrivals based on several parameters. 'Everything from the proportion of people in work, crime, receipt of public benefits, education and participation in society and other factors should be openly available to everyone, and show how integration works. This way, municipalities can also learn from each other, while at the same time stopping all immigration to municipalities that clearly have major integration challenges,' Wiborg said. Advertisement The party also wants to establish asylum reception centres in third countries like Rwanda. Something which the party it would look to form a right-wing coalition with, the Conservative Party, is also in favour of. Last month, Wiborg outlined how the Progress Party would also tighten up the citizenship, permanent residence and family reunification processes, saying Norway ' hands out citizenships like candy '. READ ALSO: How Norway's citizenship rules could be tightened under a new government
Local Norway
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Local Norway
FACT CHECK: Is Norway's government 'handing out citizenships like candy?'
Tightening citizenship requirements is a hot issue in the run-up to this September's general election, with both the Progress Party and the centre-right Conservative Party promising to tighten rules if they manage to form the next government. But is Norway really as generous as Wiborg suggests? How does the number of citizenships Norway awards compare to other countries? Wiborg compared Norway to Denmark, which handed out 6,255 citizenships in 2024 compared to Norway's 27,276, and Sweden's 67,798 citizenships in 2023, arguing that the situation in Sweden "shows how bad it can go". How generous is Norway on citizenship? Looking at the latest statistics from Eurostat (from 2023) on the share of foreign citizens who acquired citizenship in 2023, it's hard to argue Wiborg is being completely unreasonable. Just over 6 percent of the foreign citizens living in Norway in 2023 acquired citizenship in that year, higher than every other country except Sweden. In Denmark, just 0.54 percent of foreigners living in the country obtained citizenship that year, the sixth lowest naturalisation rate in the EU. It is also true that the percentage of foreign nationals becoming citizens has shot up since the current government took power in 2021. In 2021, 41,100 people were granted Norwegian citizenship, the highest number ever, according to figures from Statistics Norway (SSB) . Advertisement This, however, is largely the result of the new law parliament voted through in December 2018 allowing dual citizenship. Wiborg should remember that government then in place was a coalition between the Conservative Party and his own Progress Party, both of whom supported the change. This number awarded fell dramatically in 2024, partly because the impact of the dual citizenship law was tapering off and partly because a shortage of staff at the directorate of immigration increased case processing times. READ ALSO: Why the number of people granted Norwegian citizenship has fallen sharply How generous are Norway's citizenship laws? While the requirements to become a Norwegian citizen are more relaxed than in neighbouring Denmark, they are pretty average for a European country, perhaps even on the strict side. Prospective applicants have to live in Norway for eight of the previous eleven years to become eligible for citizenship, which is longer than in countries like France, Germany, Sweden and the UK, all of which have waits of only five years. However some applicants only need to live in Norway for six years if they have had a sufficient income . Meanwhile, those with a Norwegian partner or spouse are able to apply after five years in Norway in some cases . Norway's language requirements are also quite standard, with applicants required to have lower intermediate B1 level, the same as France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the UK. Advertisement Denmark is currently the only country which requires the higher intermediate B2 level, but France has passed a law which will mean this will be required from 2026. Spain, Belgium and Switzerland currently require only the more basic A2 level, while Sweden and Ireland currently have no language requirement at all. Norway, like most European countries requires prospective citizens to take a citizenship exam, like Denmark, Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK. The test is not as onerous as the famously tricky Danish citizenship test. Applicants need to answer at least 24 of 36 multiple choice questions correctly to pass. Topics included in the test are history, geography, democracy, welfare, education, health and working life in Norway.
