Norway's prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, has said the country's growing diversity is now central to its national identity, in a speech opening the annual conference of the Directorate of Integration and Diversity (IMDi) in Oslo, The Local Norway reports.
Støre compared the 62,500 foreign-born residents recorded in the census of 1960, the year he was born, with more than 1.2 million people from immigrant backgrounds today, or 21.7 per cent of the population. He said integration should not be treated as a contest between a majority and minorities, and echoed King Harald's 2016 speech describing Norway as all of its people together.
The speech comes as immigration features in national budget talks, the right-wing Progress Party gains support and calls for tighter controls, and several politicians with immigrant backgrounds have said they may quit over online abuse.
Source: The Local Norway
