The number of people arriving to live in Norway fell by a record amount in 2017, new data shows.
According to figures from official agency Statistics Norway (SSB), 58,200 people were registered as having immigrated to Norway in 2017. This was 8,600 fewer than in 2016 – a figure which represents the largest proportional decrease ever recorded.
Overall, Norway’s net immigration for 2017 was 21,300 – a decrease of 4,700 from the preceding year. Many people are still leaving Norway, even though the total number in 2017 was lower than it was in 2016, the year with the record number.
Of the 58,200 people who moved to Norway last year, 8,400 were Norwegian citizens returning home, while 49,800 were foreign nationals.
“The year-on-year decline has never been greater since records began in 1958,” said SSB consultant Adrian Haugen Ordemann. “The number of Asians in particular has decreased, with Syrians making up a large proportion.”
He continued: “Much of the explanation for that [the fall] is connected to the implementation of border controls in Schengen countries and the EU-Turkey agreement that was implemented in spring 2016 to limit the flow of asylum seekers to Europe, in the wake of the refugee crisis that took place in 2015,”
Article published 24th April 2018