This is a pressing question for Norwegian society, as the importation of cultural enrichment continues to accelerate.

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has translated an article from Dagbladet about the spiraling cost of bringing diversity to Norway. The translator includes this introduction:

The asylum-seeker industry in Norway is booming, and it is keeping lots of Norwegians employed. At the same time, Norwegian politicians can brag about how generous and kindhearted they are whenever they are invited to speak at the UN or similar organizations — and perhaps get a job with those organizations as a result of it.

One thing is certain: these politicians don’t look after the interests of the Norwegian people, who are being given the short end of the stick.

Articles which describe the lavish treatment given to ‘refugees’ in Norway really get my blood boiling. I have worked hard (physical hard work) all my life and I have hardly received a penny from the Norwegian government. Ever since I first started working in Norway I’ve being fairly close to what you would refer to as ‘working poor’, i.e. living from paycheck to paycheck.

This is due to the insanely high taxes and the cost of living. Even though the salaries are fairly high compared to many other countries, most of it is unfortunately being taken away by the greedy government in the shape of taxes, in order to pay for all this cultural enrichment.

That’s why I find it hard to read about the cushy lifestyle that these so-called ‘refugees’ are enjoying in Norway. They don’t have to move a finger, and they have everything handed to them on a silver platter.

The translated article:

NoK 56 billion spent on training courses for immigrants

An increasing number of immigrants end up outside the workforce despite costly introductory courses and work related training programs.

(Finansavisen — Norwegian financial newspaper) In a series of articles in the last month entitled “the cost of immigration”, Finansavisen revealed that the various integration schemes costs tens of billions and that the results are rather startling.

The money is pouring out, and an increasing number of immigrants end up outside the workforce despite the introductory courses, writes Finansavisen.

The newspaper previously revealed that Norway loses NoK 4.1 million on each non-Western immigrant that arrive in the country, and that immigration has cost Norway NoK 70 billion in the past seven years.

On Wednesday the newspaper revealed that the government has spent NoK 2 million on each newly arrived non-Western immigrant to get them to into the workforce or to take up studies. But despite these efforts fewer immigrants end up working or studying, according to figures released by the Bureau of Statistics in Norway (SSB).

Only 50 percent of the immigrants that completed the program in 2010 are net contributors today after two years of Norwegian studies, social studies or other studies, according to SSB.

NoK 56 billion

After adding up all the social cost expenditures and the various course fees, the Government has invested a total of NoK 56 billion on various training courses for 56,000 immigrants in the period between 2004 and 2010.

The outcome of the program is 33,000 immigrants who are either working or studying a year after they completed the courses, but the numbers are declining, according to Finansavisen.

The flip side of the coin is that the government has spent NoK 23 billion on 23,000 individuals that are currently not doing anything useful that is beneficial to society.

In addition to this the government has focused on ‘Jobbsjansen’ (The Job Opportunity), where it has invested NoK 290 million to get 360 non-Western immigrants into the workforce.

As a comparison, the yearly budget for the Ministry of Education and Research’s is NoK 55 billion.

This means that the government has spent just as much on getting 33,000 non-western immigrants to join the labour market or into school in the last six years as they have allocated to day cares, schools, education and research in the state budget for fiscal year 2013.

And there will be more of the same in the coming years if immigration and the various programs continue in the present form. Immigration to Norway reached record levels in 2012, and it should be noted that this is occurring at the same time that a country like Switzerland is clamping down on immigration.

Integration isn’t working

The figures for those who completed the course in 2011 have currently not been released. It takes the local authorities one year to supply the Directorate of Integration and Diversity (IMDi) with the correct figures.

12,800 individuals attended various introductory and work-related training programs in 2011 to the tune of approximately NoK 14 billion.

Although figures from the SSB indicate that quality has taken a backseat to quantity, Ahmed Ghani Zadeh, state secretary for the Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion nevertheless is supportive of the scheme.

“It is a necessary and important introduction to Norwegian society that we cannot manage without,” says Ghani Zadeh to Finansavisen today.

He also believes that the introductory program is insufficient and he wants more resources. Nor does he believe that the figures are as bad as the SSB claims.

“Currently the immigrants that are graduating from this introductory course and moving on to elementary school are not mentioned in the statistics, but if that had been the case we would have seen a significantly higher number of successful participants in the introductory program,” he points out.

The SSB thus fails to highlight the benefit of spending NoK 1million on a person who then moves on to elementary school.

“The government will improve the introductory program and link it up more closely with the elementary schools. We are going to do this because more than 60 percent of those participants who come from Somalia have no educational background when they enroll in the introductory program,” says Ghani Zadeh to Finansavisen.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.