Some Things Considered...

'Tis the season to get politically active in the United States. While our news feeds fill with political promise and scandal alike, here are a few thoughts to consider about immigration from a Norwegian perspective.

Before moving on, there are a few things to point out. Comparing the American and Norwegian immigration and citizenship services, keep these three things in mind:

1. Size Matters. Immigration to the United States is of a very different scale than immigration to Norway. The USA immigrants population reached 41.3 million in 2013; as of January 2015, Norway's total immigrant population reached 804,963 migrants.
   
2. But, different-different, same-same. Correcting for total population size, Norway and the USA are much more similar than they are different. Of Norway's nearly 5.5 million residents, 15.6% are immigrants. By comparison, immigrants comprise only 13.1% of the total US population.
   
3. Immigration is not homogeneous. Labor migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and family reunification account for most migration to the United States and Norway. In Norway refugees and asylum seekers account for the majority of migrants. In the USA labor migrants remain the most significant migrant group.

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Visiting the Directorate of Immigration and Diversity (IMDi), I learned that the Norwegian immigration system has been crafted toward a vision of employment and integration. During the 1990s, failed efforts to integrate immigrants to Norway (mostly refugees) into the work force threatened to create an immigrant underclass. That would undermine Norway's efforts to have full employment, posing serious challenges of crime, overburdened welfare services, and declining social cohesion. The response was the creation of the Introductory Program in 2003.

The Introductory Program has one goal: to get migrants working. It accomplishes this through financial and educational components. Migrants are introduced to Norwegian bureaucracy and work life through the receipt of "wages" for daily participation in the program. Migrants are also trained in Norwegian language and culture, and they receive individual advisement. It is important to note that such benefits are only available to Norwegian refugees and asylum seekers; there is no state introductory program for labor migrants.

All such programs are implemented at the municipal level with state funding.

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TLDR:

I don't assert that "we should do what they're doing in Norway," or that there is any right answer when it comes to immigration in the United States. But when the American immigration agency's citizenship checklist (here) looks like a list of eligibility requirements for a charity scholarship, I think it's safe to say things are getting a little too far off-base for my liking. What I want to see in this country is a vision executed consistently and accurately--just like the Norwegian system.

We cannot, at the same time, tote around the American dream and make it highly restrictive and inaccessible. Just as Norway has done, we must decide a balance between rights and responsibilities of future-Americans who enter this country filled with aspirations of a better life.