– Basically, we think that it is great that they are moving here and that all residents are equally valuable, says diversity adviser Flemming Johnsen in Sarpsborg municipality. But there is a group of refugees who create challenges for the Østfold town: refugees who have been settled in another municipality, but who later choose to move to Sarpsborg. – We have a harder pressure from population growth, which also has a great need for help from the municipality, than we can handle, says Johnsen. Multicultural adviser Besa Emini in Nav Sarpsborg says that there are many people who want to live in the municipality. – We have seen that there have been particularly big challenges in recent years, says Emini. Besa Emini is a multicultural adviser at NAV in Sarpsborg. The position has been created specifically to work with secondary resettled refugees. Photo: Julie Helene Günther / news She believes it is natural that more people choose to move to Sarpsborg. – Those who came with the flow of refugees in 2015 and 2016 have completed five years of residence and can move to other municipalities in the country, she explains. – Due to the network, climate and other conditions, Sarpsborg is a very popular place to move to. Last year, Sarpsborg received the most secondary resettled refugees per inhabitant of all the country’s municipalities. This has led to difficult problems in a municipality that already has a demanding economy. – Moving to unemployment When a refugee is settled in a municipality in Norway, the municipality receives a financial grant earmarked for integration. The grant follows the person for five years. After these five years, many choose to move to more central municipalities in Eastern Norway. The municipality they move to will then not receive an integration grant. – We are like a fly paper on immigrants and refugees when they can move after five years, says Johnsen. – We have examples of families who have moved from a permanent job in Northern Norway to unemployment in Sarpsborg. Nav Sarpsborg is concerned with providing the individual refugee with adapted accommodation. Photo: Sara Vilde Solås/news Frp has previously put forward a proposal that refugees must be self-supporting before they can move. Lack of housing, teachers and interpreters Sarpsborg municipality welcomes the refugees and wants them to be well integrated. But resources are scarce. – There are not enough good homes, there are not enough teachers, there are not enough interpreters. You simply lack everything you need to be successful, says mayor Sindre Martinsen-Evje (Ap). In 2020, 28.1 per cent of all social assistance recipients in Sarpsborg were secondary resettled refugees. Flemming Johnsen is a diversity adviser in Sarpsborg municipality. He says that they have a challenge in dealing with all the refugees who arrive. Photo: Julie Helene Günther / news – Many people are moving from large adapted villas with room for many children to small “hat shelves” down here, says diversity advisor Johnsen. He believes that this leads to many children living in homes that are not adapted well enough for them to have a dignified upbringing. And it is not without reason. Child poverty Sarpsborg is the municipality in the country with the most children living in families with very low incomes. Johnsen believes it is linked to population growth. – You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand that one of the main reasons why we are at the top is that we have a large secondary influx of families with children, he says. 6 out of 10 children who live in families with a persistently low income in Norway come from families with an immigrant background. A great many children in Sarpsborg live in families with persistently low incomes. Photo: Sebastian Nordli / news Minister for Children and Families Kjersti Toppe (Sp) has set up an expert group to assess which measures have the best effect for this group. – We know that children with an immigrant background are particularly vulnerable. This is also something the expert group is looking at. I look forward to receiving your recommendations and proposals for measures during the autumn, writes Toppe in an e-mail to news. Has an extra focus Nav Sarpsborg takes the task of integrating the group seriously. – Sarpsborg is a very inclusive city and a nice place to raise a family, but the challenges lie in finding the right measures to help the individual to get ahead, says Emini in Nav. Emini has experienced firsthand what it is like to emigrate to a new country. She is keen to ensure that the refugees get the help they need. Photo: Julie Helene Günther / news She works specifically with secondary resettled refugees and herself came to Scandinavia in her youth during the Balkan war. She talks warmly about the refugees who do the best they can and try to get into work. But despite the fact that they have an extra focus on the group, there are demanding challenges to solve. – It is the scale of refugees that means we have to look more closely at how we can find better solutions for those who come to us, says Emini. No obvious solution The Labor Party has governed Sarpsborg for over 100 years. This year the Conservatives are breathing down their necks. Mayoral candidate Magnus Arnesen (H) believes that there is no simple solution to the problem. – If there was a miracle cure, it would probably have been tried out already, he says. The mayoral candidate for the Conservative Party in Sarpsborg, Magnus Arnesen, believes that part of the solution could be for Sarpsborg to receive more funds. Photo: Lars Håkon Pedersen The right-wing politician believes that Sarpsborg, together with the neighboring municipality of Fredrikstad, should be seen as a big city. Together, the two municipalities have over 140,000 inhabitants. – We are so closely knit that in sum we are one big city. But if you look at how the funds are redistributed, we don’t get any metropolitan benefits or metropolitan funds, says Arnesen. Mayor Sindre Martinsen-Evje, who has held power in the city for over 10 years, believes that part of the solution lies in new area investment in the Eastern district, where many of these refugees live. In May, they received 5 million from the government to equalize social differences, writes the local newspaper Sarpsborg Arbeiderblad.
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Many refugees move to Sarpsborg – news Oslo og Viken – Local news, TV and radio
