Urbanities,
Vol. 3
·
No 2
·
November 2013
© 2013
Urbanities
52
According to Norway’s official statistics, 28,600 Lithuanians are currently based
permanently in the country.
3
This is the second-largest immigrant population from the new EU
states after the Polish (77,000);
4
third after the Swedes (35,600).
5
In 2008, IMDi (
Integrerings- og mangfoldsdirektoratet
, the Directorate of Integration and
Diversity) published a research report on immigrants from Poland and the Baltic states called ‘Vi
Blir’ (We’re Staying). This qualitative research was based on a sample of 1,013 respondents,
69% from Poland, 20% from Lithuania, 5% from Latvia and 6% from Estonia. This distribution
reflected the immigrant proportions according to official statistics at the time. As the title
suggests, one of the survey’s key findings was that immigrants from these countries were
planning a longer stay in Norway than was initially expected. The survey also identified
problems with integration into Norwegian society, highlighting the existing divide between the
dominant majority on the one hand and new immigrants on the other.
Using the above research as a starting point, this paper discusses issues involving
Lithuanian integration into Norwegian society. There is a particular emphasis on Lithuanian
immigrants’ attitudes towards and relationships with the dominant Norwegian majority and other
migrant groups. The present article also aims to provide a brief overview of immigrants’
transnational practices, accentuating citizenship as a bond between the country of origin and the
host country.
The problem: Integration and subsequent assimilation are (or used to be) understood as
unavoidable stages of absorbing immigrants into a new society. In today’s world we speak of
immigrants’ multi-stranded ties that encompass several countries, thus rejecting full integration
and assimilation into the new society and remaining part of their country of origin. The
discussion therefore addresses the question of how or whether immigrants integrate
6
into a new
society and at the same time remain part of their country of origin.
As an immigrant-receiving country, Norway is made interesting by the fact that, in
contrast with other countries such as France, its nationals tend to construct their image of ‘self’
and ‘other’ via innate ethnic categories. This partly explains why immigrants struggle to integrate
July 2012 was conducted as part of a postdoctoral research project (the postdoctoral fellowship is being
funded by the European Union Structural Funds project ‘Postdoctoral Fellowship Implementation in
Lithuania’). A total of 15 interviews were conducted. A criterion of a minimum 3 years’ stay was set for
survey participants, in order to eliminate seasonal immigrants and ensure that respondents had
considerable experience of living abroad. These surveys sought to identify patterns that form migrant
identity and the relationships of migrants to Norway and Lithuania.
3
Statistics Norway. Available at:
, accessed 15
August 2013.
4
See n. 3
5
See n. 3
6
The notion of ‘integration’ is employed in this paper in order to understand how immigrants are
perceived by the dominant majority and other ethnic groups and how they themselves perceive their
relationships with these groups.
