Arthur Lyons, Voice of Europe, September 6, 2019

A recent study conducted by Statistic Norway has revealed that the children of immigrants commit more crimes than their parents – first-generation immigrants – do, suggesting that the notion of integration is merely a fantasy.

Figures from the study showed that Norwegian-born men with Somali family background in the age group 15 to 35 were 4.6 times more likely to have committed a violent crime. Furthermore, men in the same age group with Iraqi backgrounds were 4 times more likely to have committed a violent crime. And again, the same pattern can be seen in Moroccan Norwegians (3.2), Turkish Norwegians (2.8), and Pakistani Norwegians (2.4).

For members in Norway’s rightist Progress Party, these figures clearly indicate that proper integration is not taking place and that the Norwegian government should take more action and “make more demands” to address the problem.

Sigmund Book Mohn of Statistics Norway of Statistics Norway told the Swedish newspaper Aftenposten, “There are significantly higher rates among immigrants for certain types of offenses, such as mistreatment in close relationships. And significantly lower for other types, such as embezzlement.”

Jon Helgheim, the Progress Party’s integration spokesman said that this essentially means that “integration doesn’t happen automatically over time”.

“From 2015-2017, a total of 443 people were charged with “mistreatment in close relationships”, including domestic violence. Of those 443 individuals charged, 185 of them were immigrants.

This clearly points to significant over-representation.

Directly referencing the problem, deputy leader and former Integration Minister Sylvi Listhaug said, “We have to stop hushing it down.”

“It is not so that showering them with money and services, which Norway has been good at, solves the problem. We must make more demands and check better whether the integration measures have any effect,” Helgheim and Listhuag said.

A 2017 report from Statistics Norway also revealed that migrants from certain countries were over-represented in crime statistics. In the report, migrants from Somalia, Iraq, Iran, and Kosovo were all substantially over-represented in crime per capita data during the period between 2010 and 2013. The report also revealed that second-generation migrants were, in fact, typically more likely to commit crimes than their parents. However, refugees’ children were the exception.

In recent years, the percentage of Norwegians with immigrant backgrounds has sharply risen. Today, close to 17 percent of Norwegians have roots abroad.