The 1960s were a turning point for Norwegian identity. Most Norwegians didn’t notice it at the time, but the arrival of the first illegal Pakistani immigrants would eventually erode the very community and sense of self on which the country had been built. These young Pakistani men began arriving in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Many came via Germany or other European countries on tourist visas, fully intending to stay.
By Rebecca Mistereggen
If you dig into the old records, you’ll discover that the myth of the first “labor immigrants” is exactly that: a myth. A denial of reality, featuring a trafficker in the lead role who vanished without a trace with Scotland Yard on his heels. A story that, if Norwegian writers cared, could have been turned into a fantastic crime novel in the spirit of Norwegian literary culture.
Instead, and unfortunately, this tale evolved from a potential crime novel into the murder of Norwegian national identity.
By the 1970s, what today’s politicians call “two-way integration” was already underway, triggered by Muslim migrants demanding special accommodations for Ramadan.
“A two-way process of mutual adaptation between immigrants and the host society, in which immigrants are incorporated into the host society’s social, economic, cultural, and political life.”
(IMDi and government integration reports, 2025)
In practice, this means immigrants are expected to learn Norwegian, get a job, obey the law, and adopt “basic Norwegian values” (whatever those are). In return, the host society, that is, Norwegians, must welcome them, be inclusive, build bridges, and make adjustments to avoid “exclusion.”
In short, Norwegians are expected to adapt to the immigrants, as long as the newcomers speak Norwegian in public and hold down a job. Belonging, culture, history, and shared values have been declared irrelevant. Out of this compromise the idea of the “value community” was born.
A “value community” where immigrants are encouraged to keep their own culture, identity, and values, while SAS lectures Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes that everything we have, is stolen.
What exactly is this value community? How do you take part in it when the values constantly clash? By relinquishing the values that create belonging.
According to the government’s integration policy (Meld. St. 17 (2023–2024)), the so-called value community consists of democracy and the rule of law, gender equality, freedom of speech, human rights, tolerance, and solidarity.
In other words, the values of any Western country.
These are the “values” you must adopt to participate in this toast-worthy value community, which is supposed to be the foundation on which “Norwegian identity” is built. There’s just one problem: few or none of them actually exist in Norway today.
Democracy has been outsourced to the EU via the EEA. The latest example is a sour-faced Jens Stoltenberg who ran to the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) to see if he could stop parliament from governing Norway, when the decision to cut fuel taxes on gasoline and diesel was voted up.
Gender equality? Between whom? Between what? Men who have to legally change gender to have a seat with their company board because of gender balance quotas in professions and positions? Between the rule of law and Sharia, which Erna Solberg explicitly wanted when she was Minister of Local Government and Regional Development in the II Bondevik government.
She wanted a Sharia council to help with issues around divorce, marriage, and family disputes where Norwegian law and religious practice collided. Many Muslim women could be legally divorced in Norway, but were still considered married in their religious community. Thus, Muslim immigrants have problems with the “value” of “democracy and the rule of law.”
We also saw how the lives of Israeli women caused an uproar in a May 1 parade in Oslo, because their suffering is not considered as important as that of Palestinians. Suffering caused by a horrific terrorist attack that much of the Norwegian public seems to think it’s legitimate to celebrate.
Hateful speech is ideologically conditioned. You have freedom of thought, but do not say what you think. At least not in the pub, because someone might record you listing a few facts, resulting in a digital backlash.
Human rights sound great, but the reality is that citizens’ rights are often set aside in favour of criminals’ rights, under the banner of inclusion.
The most welfare-dependent immigrants in Norway, also called “net negative contributors,” send enormous sums back to their homeland. According to the State Bank of Pakistan, Pakistanis in Norway send between 10–14 million US dollars per month to Pakistan.
That is 100–150 million NOK per month.
And Pakistanis are not even the largest group. Somalis and Afghans top the list.
From fraud to organised crime, from cultural clashes to legal contradictions, the reality increasingly conflicts with the narrative.
It is not easy to navigate this value community, and it should be clear that neither the values nor the community exists in the way it is presented.
And that brings us back to the beginning.
When anyone can become Norwegian, a Norwegian national, or call themselves ethnically Norwegian while keeping their own identity, language, culture, and history, then who am I?
If everyone can “become Norwegian” in this way, what then distinguishes my Norwegian background and identity from anyone else’s?
The answer is nothing.
Being Norwegian no longer has any cultural anchoring, historical significance, or value beyond living in Norway. Meanwhile, immigrants retain a background from the nation they come from.
That is the Norwegian value community.
And it started with immigration from Pakistan.
Who am I?
Editor's Note: Have we seen this happen to New Zealand? Consider the Treaty Principles? Plus our immigration quotas... Where is the NZ culture from years gone by? Has NZ improved from an OECD stand point? Food for thought.