(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Language is power. This is what linguist Rolv Mikkel Blakar stated in his classic book from 1973. And the recent media coverage of a wide range of phenomena, which are understood as so-called "immigrant-related themes", is a confirmation that the person who owns the language owns the power.
For many, it is therefore a question of securing definitive power in the social debate, in order to have an impact on the politics and ideology you prefer. In this way, it is tangible to see what conceptual trends are now characterizing the Norwegian word shift, in practice what is pronounced and written in the mass media.
Just look at the term "happiness hunter", which may be the word of the year in Norway. All of the 180 times it has been mentioned and used in the largest newspapers in the Media Archive so far this year. That is every other day. It has quadrupled since the entire 2005, when it was only used 50 times. And even greater contrast is the contrast to the 1990 number, as the word was hardly used in today's meaning.
But what does this word mean? According to the 2008 usage, cynical aliens are used to take that freedom, and have the nerve to cross the border into Norway, in search of a better life, for happiness. As if not all people seek happiness. As if there was something wrong with that.
As if it would not be more critical if a father or mother did not do what was in their power to secure their children for the best possible future. If so, they should get bad publicity in Norwegian media. And as if not both opposition, human rights defenders, students, rich people, poor people and future floor cleaners in Norway are happiness hunters.
As if it is possible to distinguish between economic and "real asylum seekers". As if there is something wrong in applying for residence if you are poor or just want a better life, ie more happiness – by actively seeking residence in another country, which you then want to make your own.
What, then, should we call those who ensure that most people and children are not allowed to cross borders to apply for residence in the country? Lykkehindrere? Happiness Pass?
Helping smugglers
Let's look at another word: "Human smugglers".
Smugglers, such as in Arthur Omre's novel of the same name? Such heroes who helped Jews and other Norwegians over to Sweden on the run from the Nazis during World War II? Or those who helped opposites out of the old Communist Soviet, or across the wall and away from East Berlin?
No, now it's again about cynical foreigners. The human traffickers who help unhappy fortune hunters to the land of happiness Norway. That too has now become wrong and reprehensible. The refugees themselves call them not smugglers, but "helpers".
For whom are they really immoral? Those who guard the borders or those who cross them? This is not just about who has power, but who has defining power. Just using a term like human trafficker says more about the user than about the real situation.
One of the country's major newspapers is running a series on these suspicious smugglers. And one of those who is drawn, almost as a fortune hunter, is Iranian Malis. She used ten helpers, as she calls them, on the journey from Iran via Turkey to Norway. Malis fled the regime in Iran, with which Norwegian oil companies work closely. But are she and her helpers hailed as heroes?
No, they hang out like fortune hunters and human traffickers. They themselves are to a small extent asked. Before all the way to the end, in passing. It appears that the young Iranian mother thanks these "smugglers", as they are called in the Norwegian newspaper.
"Without them, we would not have managed to get to Norway," she says.
This one sentence really says it all. Not just about "them". But also about "us".
