Attitudes towards immigrants and immigration

The following instructions have accompanied the questions posed from 1993 to 2000:

“Neither agree, nor disagree” exists as a hidden response alternative, which means that it should not be read to the respondent, but be used if the respondent gives no other answer.

Immigrants

Persons with two foreign-born parents. (For adopted from abroad it is the social, not the biological parents, who count.)

Refugees and asylum seekers

Subgroups within the category “immigrants”. Refugees are persons granted political asylum or have the right to stay on humanitarian grounds. That may be due to having obtained refugee status by the UN High Commissioner or being part of the refugee quota accepted by Norway each year, or they may have come as asylum seekers and granted asylum or right to stay on humanitarian grounds."

In 1998, a supplementary question was added to the four permanent questions. This new question had the following instruction: &“This question very much resembles Innv1 - but here we distinguish between those who want to give residence to more or &“as many” refugees and asylum seekers as today. The question was deliberately placed at a distance behind the other immigrant questions. The idea behind the supplementary question was to investigate how the answers to it deviate from the answers to the question (Innv1): “Norway should give residence to refugees and asylum seekers to at least the same extent as today.”

In 2002 the instruction is being changed to the following:

“An immigrant is a person having two foreign-born parents. For adopted from abroad it is the social, not the biological parents, who count.

Refugees is a subgroup within the category “immigrants”´. A refugee is a person granted asylum. This may happen in several ways. Either by being granted refugee status by the UN High Commissioner or being part of the refugee quota accepted by Norway each year, or by having successfully applied for asylum in Norway. Persons granted right to stay on humanitarian grounds are also covered by the term refugee.

Asylum seeker is a person having applied for asylum in Norway.

Please, also note that the concept refugee in colloquial language often is used about persons who are fleeing infringements of human rights, war, riots or environmental disasters.”

Upon request by an interviewer - in 2003 the first paragraph of the instruction was supplied with these additional sentences: “In the present questions we aim at immigrants with a non-Western background. This should be conveyed if the respondent asks for clarification.”

The current instruction as from 2009 and onwards is as follows:

Definition of concepts

Immigrants

Foreign-born persons registered as resident in Norway having two foreign-born parents. Persons adopted from abroad are not considered immigrants. The attitude questions generally relate to immigrants with national backgrounds from Eastern Europe, Asia (incl. Turkey), Africa and South and Central America. This should be conveyed if the respondent asks for clarification.

Refugees

A subgroup of immigrants who have migrated to the host country due to reasons of flight and have obtained asylum or right to residence on humanitarian grounds. Some are transferred from refugee camps abroad according to agreements with the UN High Commissioner of Refugees. Others have come as asylum seekers.

Asylum seekers

Persons applying for asylum or residence on humanitarian grounds. Their application for residence is still under consideration.

Labour immigration

Immigration accepted on grounds of labour. The Nordic countries have had a common labour market since 1954. As a member of the EEA (European Economic Area), Norway is also obliged to receive labour immigrants from countries within the EU/EEA/EFTA. In May 2004, this area was expanded by 10 new EU countries (Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Cyprus and Malta), and later also Bulgaria and Romania. Beyond that, access to the Norwegian labour market is severely restricted for citizens of other countries. Skilled workers and specialists from &“third countries" may be granted access if they cannot be substituted by labour resident within the area. Persons employed on a short-term basis (less than 6 months) and not registered as residents of the country are also usually included as labour immigrants. Before the ban on immigration was introduced in 1975, labour immigration to Norway was more or less free. The first immigrants from Yugoslavia, Turkey, Morocco, India and Pakistan were labour immigrants.