Caring for Illegal Immigrants, Norwegian Style
The Nobel Peace Center in downtown Oslo is currently running an exhibition on displaced peoples and refugees around the world. In terms of countries represented, all the usual ones are on display. Yemen with its Somalians washed up on shore, Serbia with people displaced by the war in Kosovo, Georgia due to war with Russia, Congo with civil war refugees, Columbia with people suffering from drug wars...the exhibition seemed like nothing surprising until, in one uniquely decorated corner of the exhibition space, Norway was represented. And the Norway portion was the highlight of the exhibition itself. Norway? The host of the Nobel Peace Prize does not normally come across as a destination of refugees from anywhere, partly because it is so far from another zone of conflict or sources of poverty, and partly because, frankly, there is little that attract refugees. With a small job market and super expensive cost of living (perhaps on average the highest in Europe), refugees on the botto