One foot inside?

Integration and participation amongst women who have migrated to Norway through marriage with a Norwegian man

(En fot innenfor? Integrering og samfunnsdeltakelse blant kvinner som har innvandret til Norge gjennom ekteskap med en norsk mann. Fafo-report 2009:19)

Summary

This study concerns integration and participation amongst women who have migrated to Norway through marriage with a Norwegian man, and is delimited to women with background from Thailand, Russia and the Philippines. It focuses on the women’s own perceptions of what integration means for them and what they perceive to be important in the processes of establishing a satisfactory life in Norway. Furthermore, the study looks into the role played by different actors and public services in the process of integration. The questions we seek to answer are:

• What are women’s needs when they first come to Norway, and what challenges face them?
• In what arenas do the women find it important to participate?
• Who tends to the women’s needs and how are their needs met?
• What role do the Norwegian husbands play in the integration process, and how do they perceive their role?
• How do the municipalities meet this group of immigrants and what services do they provide?

These issues have been explored from the women’s, the husbands’ and the service providers’ perspective. We have conducted focus group interviews with Thai, Russian and Pilipino women in three municipalities. In each of the municipalities we have also conducted focus group interviews with men in transnational marriages, and key informants in the municipal bureaucracy.

Women who come to Norway through marriage with a Norwegian man have rights to extensive free language training (up to 3000 hours if it is needed), and they can utilise NAV’s (The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Service) employment services to the same extent as others with permanent residency in Norway. Today there is no single public agency that has a designated responsibility to coordinate or provide services to marriage migrants, and the effort directed towards this group depends on local resources, traditions for cooperation among different parts of the bureaucracy and on the initiative and motivation of key personnel in the particular municipality.

The women emphasise three basic factors as important for good integration and a good life in Norway: having friends and a social network, mastering the Norwegian language, and having a job. Getting social networks and friends is not experienced as a difficult challenge by the women in this study. However, most of the women have a network that mainly consists of women with the same background as themselves, and many find it difficult to get to know Norwegians. Access to Norwegian networks, other than the husband’s family and friends, depends to a large extent on language skills and participation in the integration in the labour market. Furthermore, having a Norwegian network can contribute to a better understanding of the language and increase the chances of employment, to a greater extent than a network consisting of only women with the same background.

The participants in the study are very satisfied with the courses in Norwegian language and Norwegian society, but there is some discontent with the sometimes large differences in the level of proficiency in the Norwegian language in the classes. Some municipalities offer job training as a part of the language training, but there is no economic compensation for job training organised through the language schools. Only one of our three municipalities offers such job training, and here it is very popular.  In the other municipalities our respondents requested such job training. Both the women and the employees in the language schools emphasise that job training is a good way to learn a language, and additionally it gives firsthand knowledge about the Norwegian labour market and a network and references that can be useful for subsequent job searching.

All the women in our study are very engaged in the topic of work, and many are worried about whether or not they will be able to get a job that matches their qualifications, or if they will be able to access the labour market at all. An often mentioned dilemma is how much time the women should spend on language training and when they should start earning an income. The motivation to work and whether or not language training is prioritised, seems to be linked to three factors: (1) economical responsibilities, (2) level of education and (3) age. The women with higher education are more motivated to learn the language to qualify for the types of jobs that they feel match their level of education. A combination of low education and economic responsibilities in the home country is often associated with a motivation to quickly gain employment.

The women will not receive assistance by NAV to gain employment if their Norwegian skills are not on a certain level. If they manage to get a job without assistance, they can experience that the lack of Norwegian skills can be problematic both in the short and long run because they will have difficulties communicating with their co-workers or because it will be difficult to keep the job or obtain other work. The women express that they do not trust that they will get the necessary assistance to gain employment from public authorities, and many find work through personal networks.

The economic situation in the household is often used as an explanation by the women and their husbands for priorities or challenges in the integration process. Despite the fact that both the women and their Norwegian husbands knew that the husband is obliged to provide for his spouse, several of the participants hold that they were surprised to find out how difficult it is to support a family with only one income. Several of the women find it very difficult to be financially dependent on their husband, and they feel it is degrading to have to ask for money. Even though the participants frequently refer to financial frustrations, the women and their husbands are often in agreement concerning the economic priorities in the household, and there seems to be a common understanding that the women have  financial obligations towards own children, parents and possibly other relatives in the home country.

The women are in need of information when they first arrive and after they have been in Norway a while. There are no routines for providing information by the authorities when the women first come to Norway, and the Norwegian spouses, and potentially their family and network, are of vital importance as providers of information to women who arrive. After a while it becomes more important to have an arena where it is possible to enquire about questions that arise, and the husband and the women’s social network are used as main sources of information. The quality of the information that comes through the networks is not necessarily good. The course on Norwegian society provided by the local municipality is the only systematic information the women receive about Norwegian society from Norwegian authorities. The teachers and the staff in the schools often become an important support for the women also beyond their role as teachers.

A question that is often posed about this group of immigrants is whether the women are particularly vulnerable or in a better position than other immigrants. Women who come to Norway through marriage migration with a Norwegian man, are in many ways in a better position than other groups of immigrants because they have a potential door opener to Norwegian society. At the same time their dependence on their husbands can also make them vulnerable, if he does not function as a door opener to the Norwegian society.
The services currently offered this group, courses in Norwegian and Norwegian society, are important because they ensure some level of information to the women who participate. Still it can be beneficial to consider further efforts directed towards this group to strengthen the women’s situation.

In conclusion, we emphasise some areas where the women meet challenges in the process of integration, and discuss these in light of the municipal services provided. First of all, there is clearly a need for more information directed towards this group of immigrants. It is important that the information is given directly to the women in a language they understand, and not through the Norwegian husband. There is a need for general information about rights, duties and opportunities in Norway. This information is already available in a brochure translated to the languages relevant for women in the present study, and it is merely a matter of ensuring that the brochure is distributed. In addition to general information, the women need information specific to their municipality, so they know where to find the relevant services in their community. The women in the study request an arena where they can ask questions that arise and where they can receive assistance in orienting themselves about their rights and opportunities. More information given directly to the women along with a clearly defined place where the women can ask their questions will contribute to empower the women and make them more independent.

Second, we hold that the responsibility the language schools have for this group of immigrants besides language training should be made explicit. For instance guidance counsellors and school nurses are important resources in some language schools. Today the women to a large extent depend on for instance the teachers to make an effort that is beyond what lies in their role.
A reoccurring topic in the interviews is that the municipal services are perceived to be inaccessible by the women in the study, and there is a need to ensure that the public servants have knowledge about the needs and rights of women who immigrate through transnational marriage. For instance, the widespread custom of using the Norwegian husband as an interpreter for the women is questionable.

Finally, efforts should be made to make the training provided for this group of women more work oriented. According to both the women themselves and public servants working with this group of immigrants, job training as a part of the language training has been successful, and municipalities report good results where NAV and the language schools cooperate to provide employment services.