Refugees, Integration and Preventing Polarisation

Jørgen H. Kristiansen

Vice Mayor – Kristiansand, NorwayAarhus, Denmark, May 19th 2017

THE MAYOR’S OFFICE

It’s OK to steal! (in this session)

• Good ideas

• Innovative thinking

• New lessons learned

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Steal them!!

And implement them in your

city/organization

Migration in the world. Visualized in one map

Source: http://metrocosm.com/global-immigration-map/ 3

This map shows the

estimated net immigration

(inflows minus outflows) by

origin and destination

country between 2010 and

2015.

Blue circles = positive net

migration (more inflows).

Red circles = negative net

migration (more outflows).

Each yellow dot represents

1,000 people

Asylum seekers to NorwayNorway:

• 2015: Peak year: 31.145

• 2016: 3.460 asylum seekers

• Eurostat: Biggest decline in

Europe: -89 % (Sweden -86%)

• Young men is the majority

Kristiansand:

• Kristiansand settles more

immigrants than twice the

national average

• A multicultural city:

161 different nationalitiesSource; Aftenposten, 4th of March and UDI

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Number of asylum seekers to Norway last 30 years

From welcoming to integration: Who does what?

emergency

reception centers

reception

centers

settlement

and

integration

Government / state

responsibilitiesd

Municipality

responsibilitiesd

Food

Clothing

Housing

Integration

Application process

What is integration?

• Training, qualifications, education, employment, living conditions and social

mobility

• Democratic empowerment

• Involvement in the civil society and local community

• Sense of belonging, respect and tolerance for differences and loyalty to

common values

Source: PwC on refugee situation in Kristiansand, February 2016

Partner 1:The third sector

• Buddies from the local

community

• Refugee oriented organizations:

• Refugee welcome to Agder

• The Norwegian Church

• Welcoming centers

• Sports and culture

• Football clubs

• «Fargespill»

The «Buddy system»

Partner 2: Business community

• Cooperation with companies and

businesses

• Kristiansand Chamber of Commerce

• Strategy on how to employ refugees

• One refugee in every Stormberg Store.

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Source; Fedrelandsvennen January 27th 2017

Partner 3: «Super integration centers»

• 5 new «super integration centers» in Norway

(Steinkjer, Larvik, Oslo, Bodø og Kristiansand)

• Kristiansand got the biggest one with up to

180 participants

• Career guiding

• Introduction to important topics

• The most motivated are selected for this

• Sign a contract.

• 5 partners with attendance: City of Kristiansand, Job counselors,

Career centers, UDI (Immigration office), IMDI (Integration office)

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Norwegian extremists: Not well educated, but marginalized

Report from sept. 2016:

• 137 extremists. (100 Syria-fighters)

• 64% unemployed

• 4% started at College.

(Only 1 of them had a college degree)

• 2/3 had criminal records

Norwegian extremists: Who are they?

1/2 generation

Norwegian converts

2. generation

60

20%

20%

Source: Norwegian Security Police Report september 2016

«There is a great

responsibility on each one of

us to prevent radicalization

and violent extremism»

Erna Solberg, prime minister 21. september 2013 – Westgate Shopping center, Kenya

(63 killed)

An integrated approach

• Learnt from the 90’s

• We had trouble with right wing extremism

• Treat radicalization as «regular» crime

• More like a crime phenomenon than a religious matter

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Summary

1. Extremists may come from the smallest village or the biggest cities.

• What is common is the local responsibility of the society

2. The use of «the third sector» and businesses

3. We have expectations to our new «Super Integration Centers»

4. Treat radicalization as «regular» crime. More like a crime phenomenon than a

religious matter

At the end of the day integration is about:

Employment, education, social capital, network and sense of belonging

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Kristiansand kommune

Telefon 38 07 50 00

postmottak@kristiansand.kommune.no

kristiansand.kommune.no

Jørgen H. KristiansenCell: +47 92468673

THE MAYOR’S OFFICE