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War in Ukraine contributes to record year for immigration into Norway

Frazer Norwell
Frazer Norwell - [email protected]
War in Ukraine contributes to record year for immigration into Norway
Refugees from Ukraine contributed to a record year for immigration into Norway. Pictured is Oslo during the sunset. Photo by Roar Skotte on Unsplash

The beginning of this year saw the largest 12-monthly increase in immigration that Norway has seen, figures released on Monday show. 

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There were 57,900 more immigrants in Norway at the beginning of 2023 than at the beginning of the year before, figures released by the national data agency Statistics Norway (SSB) show

In total, there were 877,200 immigrants registered as living in Norway, meaning those from other countries account for 16 percent of the population. 

Poles were the largest immigrant group in Norway, with over 107,000 nationals from Poland living in Norway. Lithuanians were the next largest group of nationals, with 42,500 citizens from Lithuania in Norway. 

The war in Ukraine has had a huge impact on immigration over the past 12 months. Following the outbreak of the war last year, Ukrainians have gone from being the 34th largest immigrant group to the third biggest. 

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At the beginning of this year, there were 36,800 Ukrainian nationals in Norway. More than 30,300 Ukrainian nationals in Norway moved to the country in 2022. 

“This is the largest increase in the number of settled immigrants from a single country in the course of one year than we have seen previously,” special advisor at SSB Minja Tea Dzamarija said of the figures. 

Some 71 percent of those to arrive from Ukraine in 2022 were women, while just 21 percent of those who came to Norway last year were men. Two out of three of those who arrived in Norway last year were under 40. 

The majority of Ukrainians who came to Norway in 2022 did so as refugees. Following the outbreak of the war, Norway granted temporary collective protection to Ukrainians fleeing their home country. 

Collective protection means asylum applications are not processed individually for Ukrainian nationals. This refugee status can be granted for one year at a time, for up to three years. 

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