Lon­gye­ar­by­en plan­ned to beco­me smal­ler and more Nor­we­gi­an

Words of almost refres­hing hones­ty: Accor­ding to the Nor­we­gi­an news web­site NRK, the Nor­we­gi­an govern­ment aims at making Longyearbyen’s popu­la­ti­on smal­ler and more Nor­we­gi­an.

Lon­gye­ar­by­en (here on 17th May, the Nor­we­gi­an natio­nal day) is a very Nor­we­gi­an sett­le­ment, regard­less of the inter­na­tio­nal parts of its popu­la­ti­on. Nobo­dy is ques­tio­ning that – with the pos­si­ble excep­ti­on of the Nor­we­gi­an govern­ment its­elf, which aims at redu­cing the popu­la­ti­on and incre­asing the Nor­we­gi­an part of it. To achie­ve this goal, Oslo poli­ti­ci­ans don’t seem to have any inhi­bi­ti­on to dis­cri­mi­na­te direct­ly against for­eig­ners, for exam­p­le by dis­pos­ses­sing them of their local voting rights.

“The popu­la­ti­on of the archi­pe­la­go is too high and it should not grow any fur­ther. The popu­la­ti­on needs a hig­her pro­por­ti­on of Nor­we­gi­an citi­zens”, this is how NRK quo­tes the govern­ment, name­ly under­se­cre­ta­ry of sate John-Erik Vika (Senterpartiet/Centre Par­ty) in the minis­try of jus­ti­ce, which is respon­si­ble for lar­ge parts of Norway’s Sval­bard poli­tics.

Lon­gye­ar­by­en locals with citi­zen­ship other than Norw­gi­an have expe­ri­en­ced Nor­we­gi­an Sval­bard and Lon­gye­ar­by­en poli­cy – the part that is made in Oslo, to be more pre­cise – in part as dis­cri­mi­na­ting. A pro­mi­nent exam­p­le is last year’s decis­i­on to dis­pos­sess most for­eig­ners of their local voting rights.

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