158 000 refugees makes up 3,2 % of the inhabitants in Norway*. The two largest groups of refugees in Norway comes from Iraq and Somalia, and the amount of people from both groups are still increasing. What does these numbers really mean, and are they so important?

A commun story-line in many social settings in my country is that the amounts of refugees and immigrants in Norway is increasing too fast and that we need to be reasonable and set limits to who can enter our country, not to mention create solid rules to decide which are the ones that should be allowed to stay. The current case of Anders Behring Breivik and the killings at Utøya the 22nd of july last year shows the extreme of this mindset, but unfortunately he carries thoughts that are not totally absent in the Norwegian society (or in Europe in general).

It seems to me that many people are not aware of 1) the amount of wars and conflicts in the world that makes people flee with good reason from their country of origin and 2) the amount of space we have per person in Norway (with a density of 15.5/km2 or 35 square miles). Although the “space” might instead be the cultural space, or lack of such, in people’s minds.

If you take a historical mandate, multiculturalism is a fairly new phenomenon for this small northern country. Hence, the barrol for feeling the multiculturalism is lower than many other places, and the multiculturalism is also more apparent and recognizeable. The UNHCR has realised this and several other challenges when it comes to the meeting between the national or local communities with refugees and immigrants. Therefore they made a toolkit called “Not just numbers” that I want to share in the good old peace educational spirit.

This toolkit invites you to look behind the numbers and the statistics, to learn more about the personal history and background of migration and asylums. In this way it promotes the individual contexts and provides human faces to the numbers represented. It has a teacher’s manual, you can do photo-excercises, and watch DVD’s. And, it’s translated to a multitude of languages. Chekc out Not Just Numbers and get ready to open your mind further.

“As European societies become more multi-cultural, the need to raise awareness and promote understanding of the many reasons for which people choose or are forced to leave their own countries grows” -UNHCR

Statistics, sources & read more

Statistics: http://www.ssb.no/flyktninger/fig-2011-08-25-01.html

The Genéve convention: 4 treaties + 3 protocols = makes up the standards of international law when it comes to the treatment of the people affected by war.

Refugee = Acording to Article 1 of the Convention as amended by the 1967 Protocol the definition of a refugee is as follows:”A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneve_Convention

*Numbers from january 2011