integration recipe

Abdi is Norwegian-Somali and runs a kiosk in Oslo. He usually says to Norwegian acquaintances that it is easier to do business in other countries. Now he is considering moving to the UK. Another Abdi is American Somali and Professor of Sociology in the United States. He can tell of an increasing number of Somalis in high positions in both the public and private sectors in the United States and Canada. The professor, who himself comes from Somalia, knows of at least 50 other professors of Somali background only in the United States. In Europe he knows of no one. In Norway, few Somalis have doctorates and none are employed in scientific positions at universities.

- Somalis have greater success in the US and Canada than in Europe in general. My experience is that Somalis have more businesses in Canada and the United States than in the whole of Europe and are to a greater extent in work, says professor of sociology, Abdi Kusow, at Oakland University in Michigan to Ny Tid. In addition to researching Somali communities in the United States and Canada, he has visited Somali communities in Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands.

In Norway, there are an unknown number of Somalis who want to move to the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Several have already done so. It is claimed that Somalis there have more opportunities and are better integrated. The United States is the chocolate everyone wants, a Norwegian painter told sociologist Katrine Fangen, who this winter released her book Identity and Practice. Ethnicity, class and gender among Somalis in Norway.

- It is a completely different world in the USA, Canada and the UK. There, Somalis have had better opportunities and come much further than in Norway, says Fatuma Gjesti (26).

The Somali-Norwegian woman has family in all three countries, and knows that it is different there. Fatuma came to Norway 12 years ago, works with accounting and is married to a Norwegian man. Had it not been for the family, she might well have gone to the UK where the Somali environment is larger. There are many Somali-Norwegians moving on from Norway to the UK to try their luck there. From Denmark, which, under Fogh Rasmussen's government, has introduced a number of restrictions, it is rather a matter of fleeing further. There are still fewer people in work than in Norway. Only three out of ten men have jobs.

- Somalis in Denmark feel even more handicapped than in Norway and more I know are now fleeing to England to get better opportunities. I hope Norwegian politics does not become more like Danish politics, says Gjesti.

In Norway, three out of ten Somalis, both men and women, are at work. It is the lowest participation rate among all immigrant groups in Norway. Norwegian scalers, of which there are about 20.000 of them in Norway, are the fourth largest immigration group in Norway and the worst in the statistics. They earn less, are more often unemployed, receive more social assistance, have fewer Norwegian friends, lower education and are less integrated than other immigrant groups. In addition to the numbers, Somalis are also highly stigmatized. Negative media focus must be blamed. Media researchers Elisabeth Eide and Anne Hege Simonsen write in the book Suspicious Foreigners from 2007 that 30 percent of the coverage of Norwegian Somalis in the media is about crime and is negatively angled. Rarely do the Norwegians even speak.

- Do not bother to work

This fall, however, several Somali women have spoken out in books. The most talked about is a young Somali woman who, under the pseudonym Amal Aden, who in the book Se Oss has settled with the Somali-Norwegian environment in Norway. She describes the Somalis as unintegrating, notorious social security guards who use the child benefit on the drug khat. The book was immediately put into use by Siv Jensen (Frp) in the immigration debate.

Aden claims that the welfare system in Norway seems passivating to many Somalis and receives partial support from both their own environment and experts. Fatuma Gjesti also thinks there is something wrong with the Norwegian system.

- Who bothers to work when they get money anyway? The welfare system in Norway is an obstacle to people getting a job, she believes.

Sociologist Katrine Fangen at the University of Oslo also believes that the welfare system in Norway can act as a buffer against integration.
– Those who become social assistance recipients have a hard time getting out of it again. This is something that politicians must address. None of the measures so far have been good enough. Employers have prejudices and many young, good Norwegian Somalis go without a job, says Fangen.

She believes Somalis in Norway should be given better help, including starting their own businesses. Where the environments are larger and there are more restaurants, shops and taxi companies run by Somalis, it is also easier for newcomers to get to work. Minnesota in the United States is one of the places where many Somali refugees have settled. Swedish economics professor Benny Carlson has found that while six percent of Somalis in Minnesota have started their own businesses after a few years, the figures for Sweden are below half a percent. According to Statistics Norway, half a percent of Somalis in Norway own their own business.

- Somalis like to have business, but here it is such a complicated system. It is so much easier in other countries, says Gjesti. She believes the Americans have done something right in that immigrants must begin to fend for themselves relatively soon after arriving.

- There must be a limit to how long you can get welfare in Norway. You have to get a push, then people will start doing something, Fatuma thinks.

The possibilities of the hamburger economy

September 29 comes a new book that also addresses the issue of integration of Somalis in Norway. Gerhard Helskog hopes that with the book Immigrants Superpower: What Norway can learn from the US success can come up with a possible solution to Aden's cry for help. The former US correspondent in TV2 has seen with his own eyes how Somalis are integrated into the US, and believes the solution is to learn from how they have done so.

- We have to look around the world, and in that way I hope we in Norway can learn what resources are available in Somalis. We have done something wrong when these people wither. There is nothing wrong with the Somalis, it is the Norwegian system, says Helskog.

In the US, immigrants earn more than in Norway and they climb the income ladder faster. Whole Forest does not mention that many refugees and immigrants, as well as white Americans, have financial problems, but he nevertheless focuses on the success stories. If we believe Whole Forest, Somalis in the United States are considered to be working irons. They work a lot, are experienced traders, adaptable and have good language skills.

While 40 percent of Somali men and 21 percent of women are in work in Norway, figures for Somalis occupation in the United States show that 65 percent of men and 35 percent of women work. It is nevertheless difficult to say whether the figures also apply today, since there are no newer figures than from the census in 2000. The trend is in any case different than in this country.

- Why has the US obviously succeeded better with the integration of Somalis than in Norway?

- I believe that Europe has failed in integration, but that Norway is in an intermediate position, says Helskog and points out that there is hope for Norway when it comes to integration of immigrants, because Norway has what he calls an "almost classless human view" and a culture of work ethic. He asks the question of what we can do for the Somalis to organize themselves better in Norway as well.

- In the USA, there are voluntary organizations that receive the refugees. They have Somalis who integrate Somalis. The volunteer culture is strong in Norway as well, so we must be able to do something similar, says Helskog. The second thing he thinks we need to learn from the United States is to get immigrants into work.

- The problem for some groups of second-generation immigrant children in Norway is not that they are children of immigrants, but of social clients, says Helskog.

- One of the reasons why it is easier to get a job in the US is that they have a "hire and fire" policy where it is easy to get poorly paid jobs that require few qualifications, but which are also easier to lose. Is that how we want it in Norway?

- I will be careful to conclude with that. But the so-called hamburger economy provides greater job opportunities for refugees and immigrants. And yes, the jobs are often less well paid, but it is a starting opportunity to climb further, says Helskog.

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