Asylum-Seekers’ Perspectives on Work and Proof of Identity: The Norwegian Experience

This article focuses on asylum-seekers’ perspectives on work including the Norwegian policy tightening concerning asylum-seekers’ right to work. The new policy states that asylum-seekers must prove their identity to be granted the right to work. However, beyond this short-term work opportunity, more fundamental factors affect asylum-seekers’ evaluations of their destination country and social practice. Asylum-seekers’ perspectives on work, as well as assessments of whether they should submit identity documents can be viewed in light of their assessment of costs and benefits of various actions. At the same time, asylum-seekers’ choices are characterised by uncertainty, lack of knowledge and very limited possibilities of action including the fact that some asylum-seekers really lack and really cannot produce identity documents. Our focus is directed towards conditions in Norway, but the questions that we address are also indirectly relevant to other Nordic countries. The Norwegian experience is directly relevant to Denmark since Danish authorities are also posing strict identity requirements as a condition for being granted the right to work.