"How integrated am I?"

During the weeks 40 (2009) and 6 (2010) we had classes in Norwegian social studies. All together we gave 35 people, men and women, a questionnaire to answer regarding their life in Norway. Here we present our results, where we – in my opinion – also have some interesting findings.

Personal information:
Most of our female participants were married and had children, but only half of the men were.

Why did you come to Norway?
It was quite clear that the women came to Norway for two reasons; for love/marriage and work. The men on the other hand came either for work or because they had applied for asylum in Norway, and now had obtained refugee-status.

What was your first impresion
- of the country itself
Words like “peaceful, nice, beautiful, calm, safe for children/family, good” were mentioned on almost all questionnaires, but one (woman) also wrote “boring”. We guess she is quite young, and can to a certain extent understand her 

What was your first impresion
- of the Norwegian people
Here the words were “nice, smiling, polite and friendly”, but some even said Norwegians are cold people.

How long do you plan to stay in Norway?
Most women planned to stay in Norway for the rest of their lives (80%), but this was not the fact for the men. Only 40 answered positive here, and most of them said they intended to stay a few years. This corresponds with the reason to come to the country, the refugees put “all my life”, whilst the men coming for work ticked off “a few years”. For the women, who mainly came to Norway because of love, the “all my life” choice scored highly.

Do you have Norwegian friends?
Most of both women and men answered positively, and we are happy about this.
Do you have friends from your home country?
About 70% of all people have friends from their own country in Norway.
Do you have friends from other countries?
Many also have friends from other countries. Many of the students for social studies work in international firms or attend our school, so this was expected.

What was easier in your home country?
There is one simple answer referred to by the majority: “Everything is easier in my country”. Especially everything concerning job market and accreditation for studies were mentioned by the majority. Also the weather was mentioned more than once……..

What is easier in Norway?
Possibilities to get work seems to be the main answer, but that does not mean that our respondents say that it is easy (ref. next question). Also do they find less bureaucracy, equal health care and good organization of our society in general favourable?

What is difficult regarding your new life in Norway?
This is maybe the most important question for us in the survey. Almost everyone said that learning Norwegian is difficult. Work is hard to get, and it worries many of them. Getting the first job is more difficult than they first imagined. And last half of the asked said that the climate in Norway (referring to the winter-period) was difficult to live with.

The woman also said that they miss their families allot, and that they also find it hard to get the food they want in the stores, not because it does not exist, but because they do not know the names and looks of it here.

On a scale from 1 to 10, how integrated do you want to become to the Norwegian way of life?
Surprisingly the majority ticked on the scale between 6 and 9, so they really try hard to integrate. One respondent though pointed out an interesting angle:
“My ability to integrate: 10”
“Ability of Norwegians to integrate foreigners: 2”.