Urbanities,
Vol. 3
·
No 2
·
November 2013
© 2013
Urbanities
65
But shouldn’t you be concerned more about what’s happening here in Norway?
‘Well, the truth is that nothing much happens here. Events take their calm course and
that’s all. There is no commotion here, while Lithuania is always a stormy sea’.
Do you go to vote?
‘In Lithuania? No, not for many years now’.
What about local elections here?
‘No, neither’.
Most respondents said they are not interested in political events in Lithuania because they
believe changes are too rapid there and they find it difficult to stay up to date. ‘I’ll be honest with
you’, a 45-years-old female informant said, ‘I’m not very interested in politics because it makes
me sad to see what has recently been happening there. I’m trying not to think too much about it
and not to burden my mind with it all. Things change very quickly there, as well as the people in
power, and quarrels are very frequent’. She added that she does not follow Norwegian politics or
participate in elections there either, as she does not think she knows enough or understands the
country’s political situation. ‘Hell’, she said, ‘they should be able to elect their governments
themselves without me, without my one vote’.
Calling Norwegians ‘them’ and saying that they can
‘elect their governments themselves’
says quite a lot about Lithuanian immigrants’ attitudes towards actively participating in
Norwegian political life: participation is reserved for ‘them’ because migrants feel they do not
know enough about the country’s political situation and are therefore reluctant to vote. Similar
reasons are given for abstaining from politics in either country:
Do you ever vote at all?
No, I don’t vote. I don’t see anyone to give my vote to. If I use my vote in Lithuania,
it may turn out for the worse: I may [unwittingly] vote for somebody like those in
power now… (Male, 34)
This interview excerpt suggests that physical absence from the country of origin
(Lithuania) and residence in the host country (Norway) creates a situation in which participation
in the two countries’ politics becomes a difficult task. This is primarily conditioned by migrants’
physical absence from their country of origin; people perhaps feel that they are out of touch with
the country’s political situation and are therefore reluctant to participate in elections. Moreover,
immigrants may not have managed completely to fathom the country’s way of life. Therefore,
they may not all feel they have a right to make decisions by voting, often leaving this to ‘them’
(local Norwegians).
Conclusions
Lithuanian immigrants are a relatively new group in Norway, though now one of the largest
among migrants from new EU countries. There has been no historical tradition of migrating to
this country in the past, in contrast with countries such as the US and UK. The immigration-
