Norway’s integration minister: We can’t be like Sweden...

The Local
March 31, 2016

A tight immigration policy and tougher requirements for those who come to Norway are important tools for avoiding radicalisation and parallel societies, Integration Minister Sylvi Listhaug said on Wednesday.

“Many of those who have carried out terror attacks in Europe are born and raised in France and Belgium. It shows how important it is to succeed with integration and that is again connected to how many come to Norway. Therefore a tight immigration policy is important,” she said.

Listhaug’s package of asylum and immigration reforms is due before parliament shortly.

Not like Sweden

In the aftermath of the terror attacks in Brussels there has been a debate on so-called parallel societies and neighbourhoods where the police don’t dare to patrol.

The Progress Party’s immigration spokesman Mazyar Keshvari told Klassekampen on Sunday that parallel societies also exist in Norway, pointed to Groruddalen and Søndre Nordstrand in Oslo.

Listhaug acknowledged that the problem exists.

“It is obvious that we do have problems, one needs only look at the social statistics,” Listhaug told NTB.

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