Notice: This is an unofficial translation of the Committee’s mandate, prepared by the Committee secretariat with the assistance of artificial intelligence. Only the Norwegian version, as adopted by the Government, is authoritative.
The Mandate
As part of the further development of labour immigration policy, a Committee is appointed by the government to review experiences with labour immigration to Norway. The committee shall also analyse and assess the importance and effects of labour immigration for the labour market, working life and society. It shall also propose any policy changes needed so that labour immigration can, to the greatest possible extent, support the need for labour, help strengthen labour supply over time and be sustainable. Further, the Committee shall gather knowledge and experience from comparable countries, and assess how the EU’s labour immigration policy towards countries outside the Union affects conditions in Norway.
Labour immigration covers persons who have come to Norway to work and who are resident and registered in the National Population Register. In addition, employees on short-term stays in Norway, such as commuters, seasonal workers and service providers (posted workers and self-employed contractors), and the policies and regulations relating to them, are to be included in the description, assessments and any proposals.
Background
The 2024 Long-term Perspectives on the Norwegian Economy (Perspektivmeldingen) emphasises that labour is expected to become increasingly scarce, and points out that more labour must be mobilised to carry out society’s tasks in the future. Labour shortages are, and are expected to become, particularly acute in rural areas. Some have pointed to labour immigration as a way of solving labour supply challenges.
Labour immigration and employees on short-term stays meet both temporary and ongoing labour needs. They add flexibility to labour supply, bring important skills and help meet labour demand in many sectors. However, they may also make the Norwegian economy more vulnerable, for example in situations of crisis or war.
As both the Long-term Perspectives and the White Paper on the labour market (Meld. St. 33 (2023–2024) A Strengthened Work Approach) make clear, it is more uncertain whether labour immigrants can help solve the long-term challenges associated with demographic change. This depends largely on how long they stay in the country, how much they work and how productive they are. Labour immigrants also grow older, and will not necessarily change the long-term ratio between the number of providers and dependants. Immigrants also have access to public services, infrastructure and housing, and contribute to increased demand for goods and services. Increased immigration will therefore also increase the demand for labour. In the case of permanent settlement, labour immigrants contribute not only to increased output, but also to more people sharing that output.
Furthermore, the Committee on Labour Immigrants (Arbeidsinnvandrerutvalget) has shown that a large proportion of labour immigrants in Norway face significant integration challenges, both in working life and in society at large (NOU 2022: 18).
Labour immigration in brief
Norway is part of a common Nordic labour market in which Nordic citizens can freely work and live anywhere in the Nordic region. Norway is also party to the EEA Agreement and is part of the internal market, with free movement of goods, capital, services and persons. EEA citizens can freely come to Norway to work, seek work, study, provide services, run a business or live here on their own means. Likewise, Norwegian citizens may reside in other EEA states. Citizens of countries outside the EEA, known as third-country nationals, must as a general rule apply for a residence permit before coming to Norway to work. This recruitment is needs-based and controlled, and must not displace domestic labour or labour from the EEA.
Experience shows that labour immigration, particularly from Europe, is largely demand-driven and varies with the business cycle. In periods of high activity in the Norwegian economy and severe labour shortages, labour immigration has helped ease pressure in the economy.
The European labour market is the main arena for labour mobility to Norway. Competition for labour in Europe may intensify in the future, and some of our advantages in that competition have weakened. Although the EEA gives us access to a labour market roughly 75 times larger than our own, we may increasingly need to look to third countries.
Issues to be addressed
The Committee shall describe and summarise existing knowledge on:
- The scale and development of labour immigration over time, and the factors that influence labour immigration to Norway.
- The relationship between the use of workers on short-term stays, traditional labour immigration and other types of immigration, such as student immigration or family immigration linked to labour immigration, and the implications for demographics in the short and long term.
- The labour market attachment of labour immigrants and their family members, and their use of welfare benefits and services over time.
- Employers’ use of labour immigrants and foreign service providers, forms of employment, attachment over time and variation across the business cycle; the significance for businesses and organisations, the degree of flexibility labour immigration can provide, and the degree of dependency and vulnerability, for example when borders are closed (cf. the COVID-19 period).
- Forms of employment and working conditions for different groups of labour immigrants.
- Norway’s advantages and disadvantages in the competition for global labour, and how these are developing.
- Labour immigration policy in Norway, the EU and other comparable countries.
The description should mainly cover the period after the EU enlargement in 2004. Parts of the description may be extended where the committee finds it relevant and good documentation is available, or narrowed where the committee considers this most appropriate.
The Committee shall further discuss and assess the following four main topics:
- To what extent can and should foreign labour and labour immigration help meet labour shortages, in the short and long term?
- What kind of labour do we need, and to what extent can labour immigration help meet this need?
- Considerations for countries of origin (including opportunities for knowledge transfer, remittances, facilitation of regular migration, and brain drain).
- What are the possible consequences of labour immigration, including the arrival of accompanying or subsequent family members, for working life and society?
- Effects on employment and working life, including any displacement of other workers in the population (including other immigrants), social dumping and work-related crime, wage formation and the Norwegian working life model.
- Effects on the Norwegian economy and public welfare, including for the local government sector.
- The extent to which labour immigration may make us dependent, for example through the use of seasonal work in certain industries, or vulnerable, for example in situations of international crisis or war, and the implications for security and preparedness.
- Are we able to recruit the foreign labour we need?
- What is needed to make Norway more attractive to the kinds of labour immigrants we need? How can conditions be improved in specific areas, for example through various types of partnerships or bilateral agreements, or better information and visibility?
- This includes an assessment of developments in the EU/EEA area that may affect the inflow and recruitment of labour in the future, including the effects of any EU enlargements.
- Is there a need to rethink labour immigration policy?
- Assessment and weighting of the main principles that should underpin labour immigration policy.
- The need for any changes to the labour immigration regulations or to the organisation of the immigration administration, for example to make case processing more efficient or to prevent misuse of the labour immigration rules.
- The need for any changes to related frameworks and regulations, for example in skills policy (such as recognition of foreign education) or in efforts to combat social dumping and work-related crime.
The relationship to the main objectives of immigration policy (controlled and sustainable) must be taken into account in assessments, analyses and proposals, including avoiding misuse of the immigration regulations.
In its work, it is natural to distinguish along two dimensions of labour immigration, both of which should be included in descriptions, assessments and proposals:
- Labour immigration from the EEA versus third countries.
- Short-term immigrants versus resident immigrants.
The private and public sectors, and individual industries within them, may face different challenges and needs and have different opportunities to recruit and employ labour immigrants. This should be addressed where relevant. Regional perspectives shall also be addressed.
Delimitations
The Committee shall concentrate on labour immigration, including foreign workers on short-term stays, and the related policies and regulations. This means that the regulations governing other types of immigration are in principle not part of the committee’s mandate, but labour immigration must be viewed in the context of the scale of other forms of immigration. Implications for the design of other types of immigration may be discussed where there are clear links to labour immigration.
The Committee shall take into account the findings and recommendations of the Committee on Labour Immigrants (NOU 2022: 18), but need not duplicate the assessments and proposals concerning labour immigrants in that report. It is nevertheless free to supplement them with its own analyses where relevant.
Framework for the work
The Committee shall build on existing knowledge on labour immigration and the use of foreign labour on short-term stays, but may, where necessary, obtain analyses, expert assistance and input during its work. With regard to the development and effects of labour mobility within the EEA, reference is made to the report of the EEA Review Committee (NOU 2024: 7, Chapter 12). The EU’s labour immigration policy and knowledge and experience from other comparable countries should be included in the analysis.
All assessments shall be substantiated. The economic, administrative and other significant consequences of any proposals made by the committee shall be assessed in accordance with the Instructions for Official Studies (utredningsinstruksen). The Guidelines for Central Government Management of Municipalities and County Authorities shall be taken into account when assessing any proposals that may have consequences for the local government sector. The Committee shall mainly focus on measures that do not increase costs.
The committee may raise questions concerning the interpretation or delimitation of the mandate with the Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion.
The Committee must facilitate input from and dialogue with relevant stakeholders.
The Committee will have its own secretariat, administratively affiliated with the Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion. The Committee will also have funds at its disposal to commission work, to the extent needed to supplement the existing knowledge base.
The Committee shall submit its report as a Norwegian Official Report (NOU) around the turn of the year 2027/2028.