Ethnic Norwegians Research Articles

Privacy versus intimacy: Social interactions in Norway

Based on 71 semi-structured, in-depth interviews conducted with Turkey-originated migrants who live in Norway, this article discusses whether and what kinds of differences Turkish migrants in Norway perceive in the notions of privacy and intimacy between the Turkish and Norwegian contexts, and the implications of this perceived difference for their social interactions in Norway. While many of them value the social recognition of the right to privacy in Norway, they also think that avoidance of asking personal questions creates barriers in establishing close relationships and intimacy. For them, this contrasts with Turkey, where even strangers can easily ask personal questions or make comments that violate others’ privacy, but where people can easily establish warm, close, and deeper relationships. While they think that Norwegians are generally distant and reserved in interpersonal relationships, they find them more distant in their relationships with non-Norwegians. They think that the suspicion towards and fear of foreigners goes together with Norwegian people’s preference to interact with people who are very similar to them. Based on the experiences and comparisons of these migrants who have lived in (at least) two country contexts, this article discusses the relationship between privacy and intimacy as one where the expansion of the former weakens the latter. Considering privacy as a process of boundary regulation where individuals control how much contact they will maintain with others, culturally induced differences in expectations about where to draw that boundary creates barriers in communication between individuals who were socialized in different country contexts.

Occupational experiences and their importance for young peoples’ mental health

Background Young peoples’ mental health challenges have increased in recent years to become an urgent public health issue. Research is required to gain a better understanding of how occupations influence young peoples’ everyday lives and support their mental health. Aim How do young people experience engaging in various occupations in their daily lives, and how do these experiences shape their mental health? Method Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 Norwegian young people aged 13–16 years. Verbatim transcriptions of the interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Results Four core themes emerged: ‘doing’ for balance and stability; self-discovery through doing; intentional doing to recharge and feel free; and reflecting on the consequences of doing social media. Conclusions Young peoples’ occupational experiences shape their mental health in several ways: they serve as coping strategies, as a means to experience joy and accomplishment, and as a source of routines and opportunities for relaxation. We suggest that health-promoting initiatives for young people would strongly benefit from the inclusion of an occupational perspective.

The Norwegian Dugnad in Times of COVID-19

ABSTRACT On 12 March 2020, the Norwegian government instigated measures to limit the spread of COVID-19, the most drastic policies of any Norwegian government in peacetime. A particularly Norwegian metaphor used when introducing those measures concerned the “dugnad” tradition, a cultural practice of voluntary work carried out as a community. This article traces the trajectory of dugnad metaphors related to COVID-19 in Norwegian public discourse, to shed light on the aptness of their use. Aptness is measured in terms of “resonance,” the public reception to the metaphor. It follows a threefold categorization: imposition, endorsement, or resistance, all of which are divided into inductively developed subcategories. The data consists of all relevant concordances of the lexeme DUGNAD appearing from March 2020-June 2021 in one of the three largest Norwegian national online newspapers. Findings indicate that the imposition of the dugnad struck a chord with the Norwegian people; supportive statements far outweighed those of opposition and continued throughout the investigated period, even though national government officials mostly stopped using the dugnad metaphor after May 2020. Resistance was nevertheless also present from the outset, reaching a renewed peak around March 2021. Aptness thus varies over time, a finding with implications for future pandemic communication.

Loneliness Across the COVID-19 Pandemic: Risk Factors in Norwegian Young People.

There is evidence of increasing levels of loneliness in Norwegian young people before the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not clear how the COVID-19 pandemic, and the associated necessary restrictions, impacted on these trends. To examine how loneliness in young people changed across the pandemic, how loneliness relates to demographic characteristics and how different pandemic restrictions impacted loneliness. We analyzed data from three waves of a Norwegian national higher education student survey (the SHoT-study). Data was examined from 2018 from a total of 49,836 students, 2021 from 62,212 students, and from 2022 from 53,362 (response rates 31-35%). Loneliness was measured by "The Three-Item Loneliness Scale" (T-ILS). There was a sharp increase in loneliness from 2018 to 2021, and a reduction in levels of loneliness in 2022, although at increased levels compared to prior to the pandemic. Females consistently report higher levels of loneliness than males, with a larger difference during the peak of the pandemic. There were higher rates of loneliness in geographical regions with higher COVID rates and greater pandemic-related restrictions during 2021. Loneliness was lower among students reporting more days on campus in 2021 and for those with lectures on campus in 2022, both with dose-response associations. Loneliness is a major public health problem among young adults in higher education. Loneliness increased during the pandemic and has decreased but is still not back to pre-pandemic levels. The results suggest the importance of open campuses and in-person lectures, for increased social connectedness among young people.

Personal Notes on Hungarian American Bilingualism Research

In 1967, linguist John Lotz, born in Milwaukee but raised mostly in Hungary, called attention to the lack of research on Hungarian American bilingualism at a time when monographs and PhD dissertations described, in great detail, the bilingualism of Norwegian, Greek, Polish, and Finnish people in the US. When I became an associate instructor of Hungarian at Indiana University, Bloomington, in 1978, I embarked on The Project on Hungarian American Bilingualism in South Bend, Indiana. As a result, eighty hours of Hungarian speech and sixty hours of English were recorded, and a book appeared in Hungarian in 1990. Not much later, in 1995, I was involved with the publication of Beyond Castle Garden: An American Hungarian Dictionary of the Calumet Region, compiled and written by Andrew Vázsonyi. The personal reflections comprising this article will deal with some important issues concerning fieldwork in South Bend and will offer a brief characterization of the differences between Hungarian American bilingualism in the 1970s and today. kontram@gmail.com

Cross-Cultural Contact and Norwegian Language Skills Among Ethnic Minority Women in Norway, and Relationship with Physical Activity in Pregnancy and Postpartum: The STORK-Groruddalen Cohort Study.

There are few studies of the migration context factors and physical activity (PA) level among minority ethnic women in Europe. We investigated the association between migration context factors and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) among minority ethnic women. Objectively recorded MVPA were obtained from 487 minority ethnic women included in the STORK-Groruddalen Cohort Study at three time points in pregnancy/postpartum. We investigated the associations between (a) contact with ethnic Norwegians and (b) Norwegian language skills and. No associations were observed in pregnancy. Postpartum, women who reported contact with ethnic Norwegians accumulated 17 MVPA min/day (95% CI: -.60, 34.54) more than women with no contact. In complete case analyses, this difference was significant (27 MVPA min/day (95% CI: 8.60, 44.54)). In early postpartum women with contact with ethnic Norwegians seems to be more physically active than women without contact. No associations were observed in pregnancy.

How Icelandic Is French Law? A Few Remarks about the Discovery and Usage of Icelandic Antiquities in French Legal Historiography during the Nineteenth Century

How Icelandic Is French Law? A Few Remarks about the Discovery and Usage of Icelandic Antiquities in French Legal Historiography during the Nineteenth Century

Serious Mortgage Arrears among Immigrant Descendant and Native Participants in a Low-Income Public Starter Mortgage Program: Evidence from Norway

Although low-income homeownership programs serving vulnerable families at the lower end of the income distribution have been the focus of housing policy in many countries over the past 50 years, little is known about the post-origination experiences of immigrant families participating in these programs. Notably absent from the extant literature are studies examining the sustainability of homeownership among immigrant homebuyers and their susceptibility to falling behind on payments and experiencing mortgage defaults, evictions, or short sales. Utilizing data from 8263 families participating in Norway’s Starter Mortgage Program (Startlån) during the first three calendar years after mortgage origination, we examine the extent to which serious mortgage arrears varies by immigrant background. Two primary questions shape our research: (1) What is the incidence of serious mortgage arrears among Western, Eastern European, and non-Western immigrant homeowners relative to ethnic Norwegians participating in a public low-income homeownership program? and (2) What pre- and post-origination characteristics of applicants and households, mortgage terms at the time of origination, and experiences of household financial vulnerability or economic shocks predict heterogeneity in serious mortgage arrears by immigrant backgrounds? We found that 6.1% of ethnic Norwegian, 6.2% of Western, 4.9% of non-Western, and 3.2% of Eastern European immigrant homeowners participating in the Starter Mortgage Program were in serious mortgage arrears at least once during the first three calendar years after mortgage origination. Results from our negative binomial regression analyses suggest that program participants who were sole owners, with larger families, and higher debt were more likely to experience serious mortgage arrears; these effects were accentuated for ethnic Norwegians. Additionally, mortgage terms at the time of origination produced differential effects by immigrant background. Compared to Western and Eastern European immigrant homeowners, ethnic Norwegians were more likely to have experienced serious mortgage arrears if they purchased a single-family home, had larger LTV and DTI ratios, or if the Startlån share of their mortgages was higher. Non-Western immigrant mortgagors were more likely to make late mortgage payments if they had larger LTV ratios, interest-only mortgage servicing, or if they were more reliant on Startlån funds to finance their mortgages; however, this risk was reduced if they had fixed-rate mortgages. Financial vulnerability in terms of higher debt or fewer assets also increased the risk of serious mortgage arrears for ethnic Norwegians and non-Western immigrant homeowners, while increases in real wealth reduced that risk for all immigrant mortgagor groups.

Survival in gastric and esophageal cancers in the Nordic countries through a half century.

Gastric cancer (GC) and esophageal cancer (EC) are among the most fatal cancers and improving survival in them is a major clinical challenge. Nordic cancer data were recently released up to year 2019. These data are relevant for long-term survival analysis as they originate from high-quality national cancer registries from countries with practically free access to health care, thus documenting 'real-world' experience for entire populations. Data were obtained for Danish (DK), Finnish (FI), Norwegian (NO), and Swedish (SE) patients from the NORDCAN database from years 1970 through 2019. Relative 1- and 5-year survival were analyzed, and additionally the difference between 1- and 5-year survival was calculated as a measure of trends between years 1 and 5 after diagnosis. Relative 1-year survival for Nordic men and women in GC was 30% in period 1970-74 and it increased close to 60%. Early 5-year survival ranged between 10 and 15% and the last figures were over 30% for all women and NO men while survival for other men remain below 30%. Survival in EC was below that in GC, and it reached over 50% for 1-year survival only for NO patients; 5-year survival reached over 20% only for NO women. For both cancers, the difference between 1- and 5-year survival increased with time. Survival was worst among old patients. GC and EC survival improved over the 50-year period but the increase in 5-year survival was entirely explained by gains in 1-year survival, which improved at an accelerated pace in EC. The likely reasons for improvements are changes in diagnosis, treatment, and care. The challenges are to push survival past year 1 with attention to old patients. These cancers have a potential for primary prevention through the avoidance of risk factors.

UAV Thermal Imaging for Unexploded Ordnance Detection by Using Deep Learning

A few promising solutions for thermal imaging Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) detection were proposed after the start of the military conflict in Ukraine in 2014. At the same time, most of the landmine clearance protocols and practices are based on old, 20th-century technologies. More than 60 countries worldwide are still affected by explosive remnants of war, and new areas are contaminated almost every day. To date, no automated solutions exist for surface UXO detection by using thermal imaging. One of the reasons is also that there are no publicly available data. This research bridges both gaps by introducing an automated UXO detection method, and by publishing thermal imaging data. During a project in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2019, an organisation, Norwegian People’s Aid, collected data about unexploded ordnances and made them available for this research. Thermal images with a size of 720 × 480 pixels were collected by using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle at a height of 3 m, thus achieving a very small Ground Sampling Distance (GSD). One of the goals of our research was also to verify if the explosive war remnants’ detection accuracy could be improved further by using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). We have experimented with various existing modern CNN architectures for object identification, whereat the YOLOv5 model was selected as the most promising for retraining. An eleven-class object detection problem was solved primarily in this study. Our data were annotated semi-manually. Five versions of the YOLOv5 model, fine-tuned with a grid-search, were trained end-to-end on randomly selected 640 training and 80 validation images from our dataset. The trained models were verified on the remaining 88 images from our dataset. Objects from each of the eleven classes were identified with more than 90% probability, whereat the Mean Average Precision (mAP) at a 0.5 threshold was 99.5%, and the mAP at thresholds from 0.5 to 0.95 was 87.0% up to 90.5%, depending on the model’s complexity. Our results are comparable to the state-of-the-art, whereat these object detection methods have been tested on other similar small datasets with thermal images. Our study is one of the few in the field of Automated UXO detection by using thermal images, and the first that solves the problem of identifying more than one class of objects. On the other hand, publicly available thermal images with a relatively small GSD will enable and stimulate the development of new detection algorithms, where our method and results can serve as a baseline. Only really accurate automatic UXO detection solutions will help to solve one of the least explored worldwide life-threatening problems.

E-cigarette use in global digital youth culture. A qualitative study of the social practices and meaning of vaping among 15–20-year-olds in Denmark, Finland, and Norway

The introduction of e-cigarettes on the tobacco market has brought new regulatory challenges, and particular concerns relate to e-cigarette uptake among young people. The aim of this study was to explore the use and social meaning of e-cigarettes among Nordic young people and to discuss this in the context of current legislation. Thirteen focus groups were conducted with 46 Danish, Finnish, and Norwegian young people (24 boys) with vaping experience aged 15-20 years (mean age 17 years). Young people's vaping stood out as an inherently social practice that was commonly interlinked with experimental use patterns. Relative to smoking, vaping was seen as socially acceptable and less harmful to health. Product innovations like flavour additives and nicotine-free liquid options added to perceptions of low harm, and innovative device design features facilitated new and playful user practices. Finally, digital markets eased the young people's access to e-cigarettes, and the digital world also represented an arena for e-cigarette exposure and self-presentation. They commonly viewed vaping-related content in their social media feeds and also produced such content themselves. Young people's vaping is a social practice interwoven in contemporary digital and global youth culture. Transnational regulations are needed to support individual countries in preventing e-cigarette use and exposure among young people.

National Mourning: The First Norwegian Sports Boycott in 1905

One of the early sports boycotts in modern times occurred in 1905 as a reaction to the stalled negotiations concerning separate consulates for Norway, then in political union with the mightier country Sweden. The Committee for the representation of Norwegian athletes in the winter sporting contest Nordic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, decided to quit its work because of the sorrow which was said to be felt throughout Norway. To a considerable extent, the daily newspapers and weekly sports magazines defined the public opinion in this context. The editors, especially in the capital Kristiania (now Oslo), related the right to set up Norwegian consulates to the fundamental question of national sovereignty as well as to the democratic aspirations of the Norwegian people, thereby most probably inducing the Committee to terminate its work. Although the decision was a break from the paradigm of not mixing sport and politics, neither the Committee, nor the publications, nor most athletes voicing their opinions, presented the boycott as a kind of threat or direct political demonstration against Sweden. It became a question of morality and identity. The boycott in 1905 may be perceived as a demonstration of what mattered most – for the Norwegians themselves.

Sámi Identity across Generations: From Passing for Nordics to Sámi Self-Exposure

Following histories of racism and abuse at the hands of Norwegian and Swedish authorities, many Indigenous Sámi have chosen to disconnect from everything Sámi and instead pass for ethnic Norwegians and Swedes. As a result, their children and grandchildren have grown up with no or little knowledge of their Sámi heritage. In the 2000s, several of these children and grandchildren, who were born after the Second World War, are eager to reconnect with their Sámi identity. This article fleshes out the entangled road back to Sáminess through a close analysis of two Norwegian documentaries—Suddenly Sami (Min mors hemmelighet) (2009) and My Family Portrait (Familiebildet) (2013)—in which the women directors discover their Sámi identity in front of the camera. A central point in the discussion is how the directors use discourses of biology and genetics to recuperate their Sámi identity in the 2000s. The article raises several explanations as to why they retreat to these discourses byputting the two Norwegian documentaries in conversation with the Swedish feature film Sami Blood (Sameblod) (2016).

Mental health among unaccompanied refugee minors after settling in Norway: A matched cross-sectional study.

Aims: To describe the mental health of unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) settled in Norway and compare their responses to an age- and sex-matched sample of Norwegian young people. Methods: The data were from the Pathways to Independence study of URMs aged 15-20 years (n = 81; 82.7% male; response rate 80%) conducted in 2018-2019 in the Bergen municipality, Norway. The data from the URMs were linked to an age- and sex-matched group of young people from the Norwegian youth@hordaland study conducted in 2012 (n = 324). Mental health was assessed by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Results: URMs were more likely to agree with most items pertaining to emotional problems, peer problems and prosocial subscales than Norwegian young people. Few differences were found for items on the conduct problems and hyperactivity-inattention problems scales. Poor psychometric properties, including weak factor loadings and low internal consistency, were detected for the SDQ subscales among URMs, except for the emotional problems subscale, indicating that the originally proposed five-factor model fitted the data poorly. Conclusions: URMs appear to have moderately more emotional problems than Norwegian young people. They are more likely to report being alone, getting along better with adults than with their peers and being bullied, but also report being more helpful and sharing with others. Studies with larger samples of URMs should determine the most appropriate factor structure of the SDQ when administered to URM samples.

Construction and validation of a morbidity index based on the International Classification of Primary Care

Objectives In epidemiological studies it is often necessary to describe morbidity. The aim of the present study is to construct and validate a morbidity index based on the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC-2). Design and Setting This is a cohort study based on linked data from national registries. An ICPC morbidity index was constructed based on a list of longstanding health problems in earlier published Scottish data from general practice and adapted to diagnostic ICPC-2 codes recorded in Norwegian general practice 2015 − 2017. Subjects The index was constructed among Norwegian born people only (N = 4 509 382) and validated in a different population, foreign-born people living in Norway (N = 959 496). Main outcome measures Predictive ability for death in 2018 in these populations was compared with the Charlson index. Multiple logistic regression was used to identify morbidities with the highest odds ratios (OR) for death and predictive ability for different combinations of morbidities was estimated by the area under receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC). Results An index based on 18 morbidities was found to be optimal, predicting mortality with an AUC of 0.78, slightly better than the Charlson index (AUC 0.77). External validation in a foreign-born population yielded an AUC of 0.76 for the ICPC morbidity index and 0.77 for the Charlson index. Conclusions The ICPC morbidity index performs equal to the Charlson index and can be recommended for use in data materials collected in primary health care. Key points This is the first morbidity index based on the International Classification of Primary Care, 2nd edition (ICPC-2) It predicted mortality equal to the Charlson index and validated acceptably in a different population The ICPC morbidity index can be used as an adjustment variable in epidemiological research in primary care databases

Employee's Selection and Organisation Performance in Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) Organisation

Employee's Selection and Organisation Performance in Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) Organisation

Testing socioeconomic status and family socialization hypotheses of alcohol use in young people: A causal mediation analysis.

The effect of socioeconomic status on adolescent substance abuse may be mediated by family socialization practices. However, traditional mediation analysis using a product or difference method is susceptible to bias when assumptions are not addressed. We aimed to use a potential outcomes framework to assess assumptions of exposure-mediator interaction and of no confounding of the results. We revisited a traditional mediation analysis with a multiple mediator causal mediation approach using data from 17,761 Norwegian young people (13-18 years), 51% female. Data were collected through a print questionnaire. Socioeconomic status was operationalized as parental education and employment status (employed or receiving welfare); drinking behavior as the frequency of alcohol consumption and frequency of intoxication in the past year; and socialization practices as general parenting measures, alcohol-related parental permissiveness, and parent drinking behavior. There was no consistent evidence of exposure-mediator interaction. Formal sensitivity analysis of mediator-outcome confounding was not possible in the multiple mediator model, and this analysis supported the hypothesis that socioeconomic status effects on adolescent substance abuse are fully mediated by family socialization practices, with apparently stronger effects in younger age groups observed in plots. We found that the effect of socioeconomic status on adolescent substance abuse was fully mediated by family socialization practices. While our analysis provides more rigorous support for causal inferences than past work, we could not completely rule out the possibility of unmeasured confounding.

Observing the limits of steering - Norway’s abortive Bid for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Oslo

ABSTRACT Hosting mega-events and Olympic games have been debated lately. Some cities are eager to bid for hosting such games while others refrain from bidding. Why? Indeed, quite a few articles have sought to understand the mechanisms behind the bidding processes. However, the present body of knowledge appears fragmented and disjointed. It is essential to make the body of knowledge more coherent and understandable. This article analyses the Oslo 2022 bidding process in particular and other mega-events in general as cases of political steering. The political, economic, and social outcomes are not always as expected. People other than those who initiate and carry out the bidding process pay the bills. Are all these occurrences coincidences or consequences? Niklas Luhmann’s system theoretical approach allows for a comprehensive understanding of this complexity. This study suggests extending and strengthening the theory with other theoretical concepts to carry out this meta-theoretical endeavour. Empirical research on the Oslo case in particular and other bidding cases for hosting mega-events in general is used to substantiate the presented arguments. This study’s main finding is that each stakeholder, often as a social subsystem, operates from its code or logic, irritating other stakeholders to act according to their code and logic, thereby reducing the possibility to steer the process. In the Oslo case, the process ended when the Norwegian people said the event was not worth it. This result falls in line with other studies of failing bids that show reactions and resistance against elites’ powers and towards democratic beneficiaries.

Adaptive selection of a prion strain conformer corresponding to established North American CWD during propagation of novel emergent Norwegian strains in mice expressing elk or deer prion protein

Prions are infectious proteins causing fatal, transmissible neurodegenerative diseases of animals and humans. Replication involves template-directed refolding of host encoded prion protein, PrPC, by its infectious conformation, PrPSc. Following its discovery in captive Colorado deer in 1967, uncontrollable contagious transmission of chronic wasting disease (CWD) led to an expanded geographic range in increasing numbers of free-ranging and captive North American (NA) cervids. Some five decades later, detection of PrPSc in free-ranging Norwegian (NO) reindeer and moose marked the first indication of CWD in Europe. To assess the properties of these emergent NO prions and compare them with NA CWD we used transgenic (Tg) and gene targeted (Gt) mice expressing PrP with glutamine (Q) or glutamate (E) at residue 226, a variation in wild type cervid PrP which influences prion strain selection in NA deer and elk. Transmissions of NO moose and reindeer prions to Tg and Gt mice recapitulated the characteristic features of CWD in natural hosts, revealing novel prion strains with disease kinetics, neuropathological profiles, and capacities to infect lymphoid tissues and cultured cells that were distinct from those causing NA CWD. In support of strain variation, PrPSc conformers comprising emergent NO moose and reindeer CWD were subject to selective effects imposed by variation at residue 226 that were different from those controlling established NA CWD. Transmission of particular NO moose CWD prions in mice expressing E at 226 resulted in selection of a kinetically optimized conformer, subsequent transmission of which revealed properties consistent with NA CWD. These findings illustrate the potential for adaptive selection of strain conformers with improved fitness during propagation of unstable NO prions. Their potential for contagious transmission has implications for risk analyses and management of emergent European CWD. Finally, we found that Gt mice expressing physiologically controlled PrP levels recapitulated the lymphotropic properties of naturally occurring CWD strains resulting in improved susceptibilities to emergent NO reindeer prions compared with over-expressing Tg counterparts. These findings underscore the refined advantages of Gt models for exploring the mechanisms and impacts of strain selection in peripheral compartments during natural prion transmission.

The quality and developmental pathways in sibling relationships: A qualitative study of Norwegian children admitted to child welfare service care

AbstractSiblings are key actors in the social network of young people in care. This paper explores young people's perceptions of changes in the quality of sibling relationships and the pathways relationships follow during the transition from the biological family into care. A thematic analysis of interviews with young Norwegian people (n = 25) in care showed that, in the biological family, sibling relationships are characterized by alliances, parentification, conflicts or nonexistence. After admission to child welfare services care, sibling relationships developed along multiple pathways. Their sibling relationships reshaped into either close and supportive, conflictual or completely broken relationships. Sibling relationships were dynamic, complex, with the pathway, and its impact on well‐being, being unique to each young person. Sibling relationship quality in the biological home did not predict relationship quality after admission to child welfare services. The implications for social worker practice are discussed.