Is Immigration a Threat to Norway?

A reader named Jun has collected recent immigration-related material from a Norwegian newspaper and translated it into English for Gates of Vienna. She sent us this email on Tea Party Day, and I’m still catching up with the backlog, so that’s why this post has been delayed.

Jun had this to say in her cover note:

Today there were two articles on the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet’s online site, each looking at one side of the debate (such as it is) on non-Western immigration to Norway. The anti-immigration commentary was from Steinar Lem, a Norwegian environmentalist — the pro-immigration commentary was from Thomas Hylland-Eriksen, the sociologist who wants to deconstruct Norwegian society, as reported by Fjordman.

Hylland-Eriksen makes some ridiculous comments about immigration to the US at the end of the article featuring his own opinions — he suggests that most Americans are perfectly happy to give up their country to “brown” immigrants. Perhaps some of your American readers will want to respond to what he had to say in the Dagbladet comment thread.

Here’s the first article from Dagbladet:

Believes Norwegian Culture is Threatened by Muslims

“If I had not been seriously sick with cancer and been working, I could not have written this,” said Steinar Lem.

“Oslo will soon have a majority of non-Western background, and in due course the same could happen to the whole country during this century. Most non-Westerners have a Muslim background. The consequences will be dramatic.”

This is Steinar Lem (57), the well-known environmentalist and author, who writes this on Human Rights Services website.

Previously, Lem criticized Norwegian immigration politics in Aftenposten, now he takes it even farther.

Norwegian culture threatened

The environmentalist [i.e. Lem] compares Norwegian culture to Tibetan culture and believes that it, over time, will be threatened by immigration.

“Norwegian culture is just as worthy as Tibetan culture. Therefore, the ceiling on non-Western immigrants must be strongly limited,” writes Lem, who believes Norwegian culture should be the norm in Norway.

“Norwegian culture is threatened. During the next fifty years we will see major changes in line with our ever larger non-Norwegian population. Our values will be put under strong pressure,” said Lem to Dagbladet.no.

Cancer

It is not more than two weeks since Lem revealed to Dagbladet that he has cancer, and may have less than a year to live. He has decided not to live the time in silence.

“The truth is that if I had not been seriously sick with cancer and been working, I could not have written this,” said Lem. He believes the topic of immigration is taboo in Norwegian public.

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“If you are not interested in climate and want to maximize the oil recovery you are a good person, but if you want to change Norwegian immigration policies you are evil. It is interesting how things have been defined as irrational,” said Lem.

The future in our hands

Lem also wanted to wait to bring up [this immigration topic] until he no longer ran “The future in our hands.”

“If I had written this earlier I would have had strong reactions, and many would opt out [of “The future in our hands”],” he said. “Now I think members are ‘mile upon mile enough’ to give me freedom,” said Lem. He believes that Norwegian immigration politics have never been properly discussed politically:

“In the 80s good people wrote in the newspapers that immigration was so small that it would not affect the Norwegian lifestyle and character. So it was quite for a while before the same good people during the course of the 90s wrote triumphantly that Norway was already a multicultural society where Norwegian culture could not invoke a unique position. Norwegian culture no unique position in Norway? Many of the same people worry that China will destroy Tibetan culture and the Indian tribes in South America will be sacrificed to logging and be forced to move into the nearest big city. “

Tibet and Norway

“I’m using Tibet as an example because all agree that it is a large and wonderful culture that is entitled to protection. It must be allowed to feel the same about Norway. It is entirely legitimate to want a multicultural Norway and a social experiment, but then it must also be quite legitimate to think the opposite,” said Lem.

The author believes integration on “primarily Norwegian terms” will not be possible to carry out if the influx of “people without education and with patriarchal and hierarchical attitudes” is too large:

“If the proportion of people in Norway with Islamic background is large enough we will get a sharp setback for gender equality in Norway — due to the Norwegian social-relativist idea that we must respect other cultures. We must accept large groups of girls who cannot have contact with boys in their spare time, do not participate in school trips, but reinforces the distinction between the pure with hijab and ‘whores’ who do not cover themselves. This will also impact the status of women,” writes Lem.

“The view of gays and freedom of expression will also suffer setbacks,” he claims.

Lem is strongly critical of the rest of the left side, which he believes is not capable of addressing the problem:

“It must be legitimate to speak openly. As it is now, only the ‘egoist’ Progressive party dares to speak of an amended immigration policy, and gets many voters for it, which in my view is tragic both for reasons of global warming and the general egotism that is the heart of the whole party politics, where abuse of immigrant communities is mostly used to camouflage deadly moves in Western culture. “

Photo caption 1: Threatened — Norwegian culture is threatened. The next 50 years we will see major changes in line with our ever larger non-Norwegian population. Our values will be put under strong pressure said Lem to Dagbladet.no.

Photo caption 2: Islamic background — If the proportion of people in Norway with Islamic background becomes large enough we will get a sharp setback for gender equality in Norway. Here, from the Friday prayers in the mosque in Åkebergveien in Oslo.

Photo caption 3: Worthy culture — “Norwegian culture is just as worthy as Tibetan culture. Therefore, the ceiling on non-Western immigrants should be strongly restricted,” writes Steinar Lem.

Photo caption 4: Dramatic — “Oslo will soon have a majority of non-Western background, in due course the same could happen to the whole country during this century. Most non-Westerners have a Muslim background. The consequences will be dramatic,” writes Steinar Lem.

The second article, also from Dagbladet, is a response to the previous one, and takes the opposite tack regarding immigration:

“Norwegian Culture is Stronger with Muslim immigration”

Norwegian culture is not threatened by Islam, responds Thomas Hylland-Eriksen to Steinar Lem.

“During the last fifteen years the number of immigrants has almost doubled without anyone noticing it. This suggests that immigration to Norway has gone surprisingly smoothly,” says University of Oslo professor of anthropology Thomas Hylland-Eriksen to Dagbladet.no.

Earlier in the day Steinar Lem in Dagbladet.no said that Norwegian culture is threatened by Muslim immigration.

“Norwegian culture is threatened. The next 50 years we will see major changes in line with our ever larger non-Norwegian population. Our values will be put under strong pressure,” said Lem to Dagbladet.no.

Fears immigration

In a commentary Lem has written and published on the website of Human Rights Service, the environmentalist [Lem] attacks immigration supporters like Eriksen.

“It is an irrational fear that is created for you that you are a bad person if you do not feel the same as Thomas Hylland-Eriksen, or other prominent immigration supporters,” writes Lem.

“Do not disagree”

Eriksen says Steinar Lem ‘turns into open doors’.

“No one is disputing this. Of course we must all be clear as to what our values are, whether we are Christians, Muslims, and pagans, the environmental pigs or climate activists. But we cannot expect that everyone shares our own worldview. When people come here with the old gender roles and practicing old-fashioned ways of raising children, of course, we try to influence them to become more like ourselves,” says Eriksen.

Norwegian culture

“If Lem thinks I am not a fan of human rights and equality, he may not have read some of what I have written. I’m not a cultural relativist, I have been declared a cultural imperialist for over twenty years. I go in for the best in the legacy of the Enlightenment period, which in general is European and not specifically Norwegian, but at the same time I can not see anything wrong in treating others with a minimum of respect and openness,” says Eriksen.

Eriksen is critical to Lem’s defense of “Norwegian culture”.

“Culture is dynamic and changes all the time. The ideal that women should have the same rights as men, is not a Norwegian invention and has only been in this country for a generation,” says Eriksen.

Stronger from immigration

Eriksen believes Norwegian culture is stronger due to immigration.

“These transnational movements back and forth contribute to the spread of Norwegian culture and make it larger. When I was 19 years old I experienced for the first time two immigrants who spoke together in Norwegian. Then I thought, literally rendered: “Holy s**t, now Norway is really becoming a great culture,” says Eriksen.

He said that today we can travel to the farthest regions of Pakistan and make ourselves understood in Norwegian.

“Norwegian is becoming larger when more and more people begin to communicate in Norwegian. Norway is perhaps first and foremost a language community,” said the professor.

Norwegian values

Eriksen is also unsure of what Lem says when he speaks of “Norwegian values.”

“I think he means classical European values, which emerged during the Enlightenment period. I can not see that Norwegians are in danger of losing these values, it must be documented, “says Eriksen.

“On the contrary, it is hardly possible to open a newspaper anymore without one or other writing about the importance of democratic and humanistic values,” says Eriksen. He believes that Norway has something to learn from the United States.

“In the United States it’s reported that the USA is about to be browner. In a few decades it’s calculated that a majority of the U.S. population will have ‘brown’ skin. The American public is generally very relaxed about this, as long as the country’s population continues the traditions about what the U.S. is,” said Hylland-Eriksen.

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Thanks to all the enthusiastic participants in Steinar Lem-debate so far today! This is clearly a topic that engages. Because of lack of capacity to moderate the debates in the afternoon, we close them for the day, but continue the discussion with and amongst you readers in the morning.

Sincerely, Mina Hauge Nærland
vaktsjef/db.no

Photo caption 1: Threatened — Norwegian culture is threatened. The next 50 years we will see major changes in line with our ever larger non-Norwegian population. Our values will be put under strong pressure, said Lem to Dagbladet.no.

Photo caption 2: Dramatic — “Oslo will soon have a majority of non-Western background, in due course the same could happen to the whole country during this century. Most non-Westerners have a Muslim background. The consequences will be dramatic,” writes Steinar Lem.

Photo caption 3: Islamic background — If the proportion of people in Norway with Islamic background becomes large enough we will get a sharp setback for gender equality in Norway. Here, from the Friday prayers in the mosque in Åkebergveien in Oslo.

Photo caption 4: Worthy culture — “Norwegian culture is just as worthy as Tibetan culture. Therefore, the ceiling on non-Western immigrants should be strongly restricted,” writes Steinar Lem.