I found this article about the negative experiences of internationals trying to find a job in Norway.
I am in Norway since past June but I work remotely with a non Norwegian company.
I am wondering whether the experiences shared in this article are common and if the problems are more structural.
Are there are any data that cam provide more context?
Is there discrimination for foreigners in the Norwegian labour market?
byu/Hasampouli inNorway
Posted by Hasampouli
23 Comments
In short: Yes, there is.
There’s many instances of cases where a person with a foreign-sounding name, especially middle eastern/African, will pretty much never hear back from companies until and unless they get/use a more western or european name.
It’s tragic, to be honest, and employers miss out on skilled people because of it.
Yes. This is also largely the case everywhere, consciously or subconsciously.
IME the problems are related to language. Norwegian isn’t a commonly used language. But it is needed in most work places, also in the service sector. You can’t function without it, even as a lowly paid waiter.
My wife runs a restaurant and has a lot of applications from people who don’t speak it well enough. Everyone here speaks English, so maybe this problem is easy to ignore.
The Reddit answer is no of course not we hold hands and sing together and our system loves foreigners.
The real answer is yes.
Yes.
I dont know about data, but as a foreigner who would like to come and contribute to Norway, I understand why locals would be prioritized.
Regardless of skill levels and fit (which could be massive arguments in a completely objective world) we have to understand that Norway, and any other country for that matter, will prioritize it’s people. The same way majority of people would prioritize their family over strangers, even though family could be in the wrong.
Norwegians need jobs too, leaders have to keep people (or the majority) as ‘happy’as possible to ensure votes.
If everything would be fair and equal, would we even have the concept of countries anymore? Now if that would be a good/bad thing sounds like an interesting debate
Most Norwegian redditors doesnt seem to participate in the job sector.
Its harder for foreigners to get jobs in general, but the effect is not so large. Norway has lack of labor, and most foreigners -are- employed.
Its VERY difficult for unskilled labor to find jobs though. Even worse for Norwegians I assume, as the employer plans to exploit the workers.
There’s a mismatch between the expectations and the reality, combined with a lack of entry-level positions in certain industries.
As an employer I get a lot of applications from people all over the world, but mostly europeans. They’re quite often mass-produced and tells little of how the person will be of value to my company.
In addition, foreigners (not to be confused with immigrants living and working here, or people born here of immigrants) does neither have the sufficient knowledge of our society to successfully work within several domains , nor the language skills to work effectively in teams. Some people (anglos in particular) expect to be able to speak English at work, which in most cases is a No-go.
Given the surplus of potential recruits in some areas, foreigners applying from abroad more or less always go in the bottom of the pile of resumes.
Paywall for article.
Its harder for foreigners to get jobs anywhere.
I would not take the butthurt of people who didnt get a response for their first 20 job applications as evidence of anything though.
Job market is crazy though
Oh god yes. I think there are broad cultural reasons for this, that I won’t get into.
But, I think a significant part in this, is that it is very hard to fire people in Norway. So, in the end, if you are running a business, you are going to be very cautious about hiring people at all, let alone foreigners. Because if someone isn’t working out, then it could take years of work, or invite a lot of legal issues, to end employment with someone. So, the places that end up hiring foreigners, are perhaps really desperate for people, and also perhaps end up not being a good working experience for foreigners either, so they end up leaving Norway even.
Why is this even a question when we already know the answer 😂
I do occasionally hire people in the IT sector.
Whenever we post a job opening (mostly require a bachelor or master degree) we’re swamped with applications from all over the world. It is not uncommon to get 200 applications whereof most are perfectly qualified. Maybe 50 of them are perfect fits for the position.
When faced with 50 perfect applications, it comes down to who do I think it will be easiest to have working in our offices. Who will I like best on a personal level. Who can I chat with the most easily. Big emphasis on chat with here… I speak perfectly serviceable international English, far better than the average person. And the average person in norway is pretty good overall. But our casual language is still norwegian. Speaking norwegian is not necessary for the job, but it is for fitting in, to be part of the community. Given that I have 50 great applicants, I can pick and choose on other criteria – like who do I like to chat with, who do I connect with on a personal level. In this competition it is hard to come through if I have to switch languages to accommodate you.
Secondly. Who do I think is in it for the long run and not only here to make money for a few years. It takes time and effort to teach you everything about our rather boring legacy systems and how to keep them operating. If you’re going to quit because you feel that you’re not a part of the community, because you have made no effort to be part of the community – then I might just choose one of the other 50 perfectly great candidates that have a higher chance of remaining to do grunt work.
I work as an IT consultant for a medium sized company. My boss is foreign, with a name no Norwegians are able to pronounce. My closest colleagues are Indian and Polish.
When we hire people, our priorities are: Do you know the systems we work on? Do you know Norwegian? Do you know English? The first is a must, and then either language is ok, but not knowing Norwegian limits some of the projects you can work on.
We also have some projects that require clearances which are difficult to get unless you are a Norwegian citizen.
We don’t care about religion, ethnicity or where your name is from.
Ethnic orwegians will deny it, just look at what people responded to this research. Auto translation in Chrome will help you.
https://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/i/OoRQ9O/et-trygt-helsevesen-er-et-helsevesen-uten-rasisme
This is the most racists country in terms of partiality, they prefer their own people even if you are qualified and more better. Their system allows that and no-one can do anything about it. A lot people who are born here with immigrant background leaving this country because the society is unwelcoming and conservative.
During job shortage, it’s only natural to privilege locals or those you feel a closer connection to, more likely to fit in and stick around, provided they are qualified for the job. If I go settle in Turkey, am I more or less likely to get a job at the local bank or as a chef with a name like John Smith and a high school diploma from Bodø
People like to pretend it’s primarily prejudice, but most of the time there is nuance. Language expectations. Personality. Other applications.
Of course there is. It’s the same everywhere. Especially in smaller places it’s who you know first before what you know.
There’ll be a lot of rejections, but eventually can get work, though this depends on what you’re looking for Obviously this will improve with better Norwegian language skills.
Im a foreigner works in a Norwegian Company.
First we have to understand that we are in a foreign country and we have to respect their values.
Main reason foreigners don’t get much opportunities are they most of us try to replicate our work environments in Norwegian offices.
Im completely happy and havent felt discrimination by fellow Norwegians.
Yeah probably if you dont speak the language. Which is understandable
100% although most will never admit it.
Yeah there is.
My friend applied for a job in IT, which is supposed to be one of the easier fields to find work in as a foreigner in Norway, and he didn’t hear anything back. Then he sent the exact same CV, only changing the name and email to a Scandinavian one and got an interview right away.
At the start of the interview, he looked surprised and asked, “Are you actually this XXXX?” He then claimed they don’t discriminate based on names. Tried to compose himself for a bit, but after a while he put in his snus and straight up said it would be an instant rejection from them.
And yeah, all of this is on video.
Yes, is the answer, is it unique? No, any country has this issue in some form or another.