Policies in Municipal Public Services and Migration to Norway

Today, approximately 15% of the total Norwegian population of 5 million are immigrants, and this number is growing. This article investigates how public social service institutions and local policies are challenged by the new realities of migration and how they attempt to meet them in Norway, by identifying and discussing tensions between policies and practices. The article exemplifies these tensions through focusing on the Education sector and the Health and Care sector, and their respective treatment of two groups, labour migrants and refugees. Interviews were conducted with immigrants and public service providers in three municipalities. In the analysis of various white papers on migration and integration issues, we use the concepts of group pluralism and individual pluralism as analytical tools. In the empirical analysis, we have searched for critical issues arising in the relationship between providers and receivers of services. We find that when national policies meet practice at the municipal level, the municipal context and economic incentives are important factors. Other central aspects include the history, traditions and functions of the social service institutions that are responsible for carrying out national policies at the municipal level. Here, the main professional bodies appear to exercise their own particular logic in regards to the integration and inclusion of migrants into the Norwegian society.