How Does The British Feel About Norwegian Immigrants

What do Norwegians think about Finnish/other Nordic immigrants?

Well I can only answer from this Norwegians point of view but I do think I am not alone in my views.Other Nordic people are not really foreginers. We are one people with 3–5 tribes. Even the Finns who speak a language which is as foregin as Zulu.Swedish, Danish and Norwegian are all so alike we really could still argue if we should be one language or several. The Swedish minority and the fact that all Finns learn Swedish in school bind them to gether with the rest of us. On all the Atlantic Islands they learn Danish in school binding them with the rest of us.Our culture is largely similar. We share atleast a thousand years of history. Traditionally we belong to the same branch of Christianity. We a have I believe north of one thousand years of State and personal unions spread across us.on the topic of immigration in perticular we help eachother out when the other ones have good or bad times. Huge parts of the railways in Norway were built by the Swedes. During the second world war plenty of Norwegians took refuge in Sweden.It should be noted as all immigration it often will depress local wages, as much of the Swedes who come to Norway take low skill labour they have a perticular effect on those wages. Cost of housing goes up, less space in traffic. And so on.From that point of view the Nordic immigrants are just as terrible as any other group of immigrants. Unlike many other immigrants however they are more or less integrated right off the boat.In my view I would rather have Nordic immigrants than any other type of immigrant. After all why change something which has worked for 1,000 years?

What do British people think of Scandinavian immigrants?

We think of them highly favourably. Most of them are polite, nice and educated.Culturally we are highly similar so they usually face no problems when living here. Furthermore most Scandinavians speak impeccable English so there are no language barriers.Scandinavian nations have a similar socio-economic status as the UK. Scandinavians have grown up in a developed and affluent country so when they come to the UK they are equipped for living and contributing to this country. For example Scandinavian immigrants to the UK are likely highly educated and skilled, this is great for the UK as we have a highly developed advanced economy. Our economy is mainly services-based with most of the jobs in this country being in banking, finance and law. After services, most jobs are in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) fields. So due to the excellent Scandinavian education system, most Scandinavians probably have these skills so can contribute immensely to the British economy.One thing I would say though is that there aren’t that many Scandinavian immigrants in the UK even with EU freedom of movement. I guess this is probably because the standard of living is a tad higher in Scandinavian nations.

What nationality have the immigrants which are best integrated into the Norwegian society?

These are the employment numbers from the official government statistics website : 60 prosent av innvandrerne er i arbeidIf you scroll down you’ll see the graph.Immigrants from Sri Lanka, India, Sweden , Poland, Germany and China are the most productive (employment and taxes). They are also the least likely immigrants to be criminals according to police statistics.Now for the least productive immigrants, they come from Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Ethiopia. These nationalities are also the most likely to be criminals.Best performers in school (they do better than norwegians) : chinese, sri lanka and india.Worst performers in school : somalians, syrians and people from iraq.Only 36% of somalian men and 22% of somalian women have a job. So that means that around 70% of somalian immigrants is recieving government welfare money.Mener NAV er en sovepute for mange somaliereSo some nationalities create wealth and is valuable resources for the norwegian society while other nationalities is draining the welfare state for large amounts of money.I’m positive to immigration overall but I think our immigration policies should reflect the statistics. In other words: Allow more immigrants from countries we know perform well and be strict with immigration from countries we know have trouble integrating into the norwegian society.We are a small country with a tiny population so we should be careful with who we allow into our country.

How do the British perceive Scandinavians?

Don’t expect normal people to have a nuanced understanding of the difference between Norwegians, Swedes, Danes and Finns (yes, I know Finland isn’t Scandinavia, but that is lost on most people here). Prepare your come-backs to jokes about Abba, hygge, Lego, those big jumpers they wear in The Killing, Vikings and saunas - but all in very good humour. If you really push on what we specifically associate with Norway you might get Hurtigruten, Harry Hole and (sadly) Anders Breivik.I don’t know anyone who has a negative perception of Scandinavians. After the Irish, they are probably seen as the closest (maybe fighting with the Dutch) to the British in terms of worldview, temperament and culture. A bit unexciting and reserved maybe - none of that fiery Mediterranean culture we like on holiday - but polite, good humoured, beautiful cities, scenery and people, and fashionable design and culture.In fact, all things Scandinavian have been very fashionable for a few years now - it might be on the wane, sadly. ‘Nordicana’ (ie, Scandi crime drama) has been big business, and last year you couldn’t move for ‘hygge’ things.

What do Norwegians think of foreigners who speak Norwegian?

Well. “Foreigners who speak Norwegian” are most typically immigrants from Middle-east countries, as well as some immigrants from Eastern Europe (particularly Poland) in recent decades.As for the Polish guest workers, I find that I have developed positive connotations to their particular accent. I find it quite pleasant. It may be because these workers are often more smiling, polite, pleasant and service-minded than their Norwegian counterparts, especially when you encounter them as shop attendants.As for first-generation immigrants from (in particular) Pakistan, their accent and grammar are typically pretty atrocious. It could hardly be different; their native tongue is so very unlike Norwegian. Most speak well enough to get along in everyday life, doing low-status jobs Norwegians in many cases don’t want. Some such jobs (like cleaning floors) may not require too much verbal interaction with Norwegians in the first place. Yet very many Middle-eastern immigrants also end up as taxi drivers, for whatever reason.I have interacted academically with a man of Greek extraction who speaks excellent Norwegian, even to the point of delivering lectures to Norwegian students at university level. Of course I can quickly tell that he isn’t a native speaker, but I don’t find his accent distracting or unpleasant in any way. Grammatically he is down to such hard-to-shake mistakes as occasionally getting the gender of nouns wrong (foreigners always have a tendency to inflect the small category of Neuter nouns according to Common Gender patterns, since the Common class is so much larger).