Norwegians generally live longer than Americans. There is a generous safety net of healthcare and pensions, and although it is pricey, the country last year was named the happiest on Earth.
US President Donald Trump says the US should take in more Norwegians, but is it any wonder that more Americans are going the other way?
The nation of 5.2 million people that seldom makes global headlines on Friday awoke to the news that Trump wanted to have more immigrants from Norway, rather than Haiti and nations in Africa that he disparaged with a vulgar term.
The comments came after Trump on Wednesday met with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg in Washington. His remarks were seen in Oslo as racially charged and sharply at odds with Norwegian values of inclusivity.
“This says a lot about what Trump thinks it means to be an American. It is more about ethnicity than shared values,” said Hilde Restad, an associate professor of international affairs and a former US resident.
Norwegians generally did not want “to be flattered by this US president in this way,” she added.
Henrik Heldahl, a commentator for the political Web site Amerikansk Politikk, said the sentiment would have been welcomed in Norway had Trump used less coarse language for Haiti and African countries.
“It could have been a compliment and a nice sending off for Erna Solberg as a trusted US partner, but the way he said it guarantees that the reaction here will be very negative,” Heldahl said.
Emigration from Norway to the US hit its peak in 1882, when nearly 29,000 mostly poor Norwegians crossed the Atlantic. However, in 2016, only 1,114 Norwegians moved to the US, while 1,603 Americans moved to Norway.
Trump’s comments were unlikely to trigger an exodus from one of the wealthiest nations in the world.
Oil-rich Norway ranks fourth in the world for GDP per person, according to the World Bank, while the US was eighth.
Norway also boasts a universal healthcare system, low unemployment and a US$1 trillion “rainy day” fund fueled by its offshore oil and gas resources that helps pay for generous pensions and other social welfare programs.
Norwegians also have an average life expectancy of 81.8 years, making them the 15th longest-living people in the world, according to the WHO. The US is in 31st place, with a life expectancy of 79.3 years.
“Why would people from Norway want to immigrate here? They have actual healthcare and longer life expectancy,” author Stephen King said on Twitter.
Norway last year soared to the top slot in the World Happiness Report. The US was 14th, down from No. 13 in 2016, and over the years Americans have steadily been rating themselves less happy.
Not that the Nordic land of Edvard Munch’s The Scream is a perfect paradise — it is gloomy from a lack of sunlight for most of the winter, temperatures are comparable to the northern US and the cost of living is high — a beer can cost as much as US$12 and so can a meal at McDonald’s.
It also is not as ethnically homogenous as some might think. About 17 percent of inhabitants are immigrants or children of immigrants.
Norway has its own battles over foreign-born migrants, with the populist Progress Party — a junior partner in the ruling coalition — calling for a tightening of immigration controls.
Solberg’s US visit was hailed as a success in Norway, where she was praised for raising issues around climate change and international trade, but immigration appeared not to have been on the agenda.
Progress Party head of foreign policy Christian Tybring Gjedde said Trump was stating that “citizens of other countries are not as nice as Norwegians.”
“I would never express myself in that way, but it is flattering that he wants more of us in the country,” he said. “Asylum seekers are expensive and a challenge to the culture.”
National Norwegian broadcaster TV2 on Friday went to the streets in Oslo, asking people if they wanted to move to the US. None said they wanted to leave.
“Absolutely not,” one unidentified man said, while an unnamed woman added: “If they get a new president.”
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrapped up his visit to the People’s Republic of China, he received his share of attention. Certainly, the trip must be seen within the full context of Ma’s life, that is, his eight-year presidency, the Sunflower movement and his failed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, as well as his eight years as Taipei mayor with its posturing, accusations of money laundering, and ups and downs. Through all that, basic questions stand out: “What drives Ma? What is his end game?” Having observed and commented on Ma for decades, it is all ironically reminiscent of former US president Harry