NORWAY NEWS ANALYSIS THE NORDIC PAGE

Unemployed Europeans End Up on Streets in Norway

A growing number of unemployed Europeans come to Norway to find a job. But, they end up without jobs and have to live on streets.

According to NTB, Tax Administration reported that there is a 33% increase in the number of Spanish citizens entering in Norway to work. The number of Greeks who are applying for tax card to work also increased by 82 percent from the year before. Italians have also increasingly flowed in Norway.

But not everyone gets a chance to use their tax cards. Many are generally unemployed for several months.

- The reality is very different, says Spanish Gonzalo Marina. He left a wife and two children to get a job in Norway after he was unemployed in Spain. In Norway, he does not speak Norwegian and survive by living on the street and take advantage of free foods handed by Robin Hood Huset and Church City Mission in Bergen.

Since March last year, Robin Hood Hus received 250 others in the same situation. Some are highly educated, some are skilled workers and some are unskilled.

- A young boy from Spain was sleeping on the street for three weeks in the autumn. A German man was sleeping in a cave at Nygårsbroen, says CEO Marcos Amano at the Foundation Robin Hood House. He points out that the labor market in Norway requires language, formal qualifications, certificates and references. - There are few jobs you can walk right into, says Amano.

The Church City Mission, Caritas Norway and the Salvation Army also report increasing demand. Capacity is over in many places with growing number of Spanish, Portuguese, Italians and Greeks who look for a better life in Norway.

If There is No Job, They Should Go Home

Minister of Labour Hanne Bjurstrøm (Ap) thinks European immigrants who fail in the job hunt in Norway should go back to their home country. 

- We are part of the free labor market in Europe. It means that people are free to travel around and look for jobs. But if it is not working, then we as a state have no obligation beyond ensuring that job-seekers from the EU does not suffer acute distress. Then it is my view is that they should better be in their home environment rather than go for cold water in Norway, says Bjurstrøm.

Facts

Entitlement to unemployment benefit earned in another EEA country can be transferred to Norway using form E-301 from the country where you used to work. The conditions for transferring the rights must be met. One of the conditions is that you have worked full-time in Norway for at least eight weeks. The work must have started within 12 weeks of your arrival in Norway and have been completed within a 12-week period.

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