Success or Failure? Political Narratives on Immigration and Migrant Integration in Rural Norway

Over the last decades immigration to Norway has increased, and today immigrants are represented in all Norwegian municipalities – including the most remote and rural parts of the country. In some small municipalities, labour migrants account for a substantial part of the population, in others there are more refugees. Whereas labour immigration is directly related to the labour market and the industry in a region and not neccessarily part of a political strategy, the settlement of refugees is a political decision where the local government can decide if, and how many refugees, to settle. When the number of refugees coming to Norway decreased from 2017 - 2019, the situation has turned to a “fight for the refugees”, where both rural and urban municipalities are trying to convince the central government that they are the best place to settle new refugees. At the same time, quite a few municipalities are experiencing economic problems due to refugee settlement as quite a few of the refugees have not become part of the labour force but instead relying on public welfare systems when the economic incentives from the central government had stopped. The aim of this paper is to explore the ways in which the experiences with immigration and migrant integration are narrated by local politicians in some selected rural municipalities. What is presented as positive/negative immigration and successful/failed migrant integration – from the perspective of the local community? Is success and/or failure explained by specific local characteristics – and if so; what are they? And which imaginaries of the local community and ‘the locals’ do these narratives produce? The paper is based on qualitative interviews with 14 mayors from selected rural municipalities in Mid-Norway, and the main analytical tool has been narrative analysis