Migration
Articles on migration.
Bold Nordic agreement without a political “father”
The common labour market is the jewel in the Nordic cooperation. It was established as early as 1954, three years before the five first member states of what would become the EU signed the Treaty of Rome.
Moving gave several identities
Gunnel M Helander came to Sweden with her family aged four in late summer 1954. She now lives in Hanko in Finland’s south-westernmost point and is a retired architect. She feels Nordic: Swedish, Finnish and Ålandish. Her removal van has made many trips between Sweden and Finland.
“Sweden was somewhere you could make money”
Early autumn 1954, and Gösta Helsing is 17, one of nine siblings living at home in a small village in Vörå in Swedish-speaking Ostrobothnia. Post-war Finland is poor from paying reparations to Russia and there are few jobs. The small farm cannot sustain all nine siblings. Many neighbours, friends and relatives are moving to Sweden.
An interest in engines took him to Sweden - but it didn’t pay enough
Per Billington moved from Norway in 1984 to work at Volvo’s research department in Gothenburg for one and a half years. It shaped his entire career. This is where he learned ‘ordning och reda’ — Swedish ‘proper order’ — and he learned to love diesel engines.
Always Norwegian at heart
This August Norwegian badminton player Erik Rundle has lived in Denmark for longer than he lived in Norway, and he doubts he will ever return for more than holidays and to defend his badminton titles.
Longed for Icelandic nature — became head of an aluminium plant
When US aluminium giant Alcoa built a smelting plant in Iceland in the 2000s, Danish Janne Sigurðsson quit her job in Denmark and moved to Iceland. She was a stay-at-home mother for a while. Now she heads Alcoa’s largest aluminium smelting plant in Europe.
“Swede moving to Norway, what do I need to know?”
On 13 December 2010 Charlotte Lundell started working as Brand Manager at Orkla Confectionery & Snacks. The first thing she did when she got the job was to google: “Swede moving to Norway, what do I need to know?” At the time she was one of 80,000 Swedes working in Norway. In 2013 she is one of 90,000.
"Every Polish worker's dream is a steady job in Norway"
The sizeable immigration from former Eastern European countries to the Nordic countries - and to Norway in particular - calls for integration measures which also include labour migrants, say Norwegian researchers.
New measures for better integration
Open borders in Europe has led to a new wave of labour migrants from crisis-hit countries to the Nordic countries. This poses new challenges, but emphasis is now being put on finding ways to make sure those who are allowed to stay are secured the right to a better life where education and work is key.
Solveig Horne, minister with a blue-blue view of Norwegian integration
“I am now in government,” says the Progress Party’s Minister of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion Solveig Horne. She will stick to the cooperation agreement with the Conservatives and the supporting parties the Liberals and Christian Democrats.
Au pairs balance between cultural exchange and work
How far does our concern for young people’s working environment stretch? Does it go as far as to cover Filipino au pairs in Norway and Denmark? This month saw the start of a trial in Oslo against a host family who allegedly forced two au pairs to work 96 hour weeks.
OECD: Economic worries fuel immigration debate
The number of asylum seekers in the whole of the OECD topped 400,000 for the first time in eight years in 2011. Preliminary figures shows this trend carrying on in 2012. There are large differences within the Nordic region. In Sweden last year nearly twice as many people sought asylum as in Denmark, Finland and Norway combined.
Nordic countries: conflicting views on social dumping
The Nordic countries have chosen different strategies for how to fight social dumping. In Norway a Supreme Court judgement on working conditions in the shipbuilding industry has strengthened the trade unions’ roll. The Danish and Swedish governments are increasing workplaces controls.Will emigration from the Baltics in the long run undermine the Baltic countries?
Editorial: Bad working conditions under pressure
What do you do if your colleague works twice as long at half the pay that you get? There are trades and individuals who gravely exploit cheap labour, and in times of crisis many will accept a lot in order to get a job. What is being done in the Nordic region to make sure labour market rules are being followed? The fight against social dumping is this month’s theme in the Nordic Labour Journal.
Nordic region increases fight against social dumping
335,000 citizens from EU’s new member states moved to the Nordic region between 2004 and 2011. A considerable number of workers and service providers from these countries have also been posted there during the same period of time. Foreign labour has represented a positive contribution to the economic growth, but it has also put pressure of wages and working conditions.
Denmark increases fight against social dumping
More fines for foreign companies and labour clauses in public contracts - these are the newest weapons in Denmark’s fight against social dumping. They will have an impact on social dumping but won’t eradicate it, thinks expert.
Sweden: “More social dumping” after easing of labour immigration laws
In December 2008 the law for labour immigration into Sweden for people from outside the EU and EEA was changed. The labour market test was abandoned and today individual employers decide whether there is a shortage of labour. Critics say this means many employees no longer are protected by the law.
Emigration threatens the Baltics
Emigration from the Baltic countries threatens to undermine their entire social structure. Now the Nordic Council of Ministers wants to map the migration and its consequences. NLJ has met two Estonian construction workers who explain why they moved to Finland - and why they don’t plan to return.
Editorial: Labour migrants head North
Iro came first. She arrived from Greece to study. Then the crisis hit, Iro found a job and stayed. Now her brother Dimitris has joined her to look for work in Norway. Do they represent a wave of job seekers from crisis-hit southern Europe to the Nordic region, we wonder in this month’s theme.
Nordic region next stop for the Portuguese?
Will the Nordic countries see an influx of labour form crisis-hit Mediterranean EU countries? Portugal’s emigration rose by 85 percent in 2011 and 240,000 Portuguese - two percent of the entire population - have emigrated in the past two years. In Switzerland they already make up the largest group of people born abroad. But are the Nordic countries equally tempting?
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