Norway’s labour minister tells broke and unemployed Southern Europeans to go home

The number of Southern Europeans seeking work in Norway has increased as the unemployment problem continues to grip Spain and other countries in the region. Norway, despite not belonging to the European Union, is is part of an integrated European labour market through European Economic Area agreement. Thus prospective workers from the European Union (excluding Romania and Bulgaria for whom restrictions are in place until 2014) and other EEA countries Iceland and Liechtenstein can travel freely and apply for a job in Norway.

While so far the number of would be immigrant workers from Southern Europe in Norway is far below the amount of Polish and Baltic workers, many of them have had to concede that finding a job in Norway may not be as easy as it sounds. Norwegian minister of Labour Hanne Bjurstrøm told local media, that she thinks people who have been unable to find work and are staying in Norway with little cash at hand should go home rather than to try to tough it out in an unfamiliar environment.

Bjurstrøm, who is a member of Norway’s Labour Party, notes that the State has no obligation to provide for such people beyond emergency help. In times of economic crisis, freely moving labour can help industries adjust to a new situation and ease structural transition. In such times there is always a risk of hardening attitudes against ‘outsiders’ seen as would be competitors for jobs. Immigrant and seasonal labour is very important for many industries, particularly fish processing and oilfield services, in Norway but the match of skills and need is not always present.