Study: Norwegian employers prefer compatriots

A recent survey has revealed that employers in Norway are more likely to hire other Norwegians, even when foreigners have better qualifications.

The news comes via University of Bergen researcher Jøri Gytre Horverak, whose study of more than 400 employers in Norway revealed that immigrant workers are less likely to be hired unless they have heavily integrated into Norwegian culture.

Horverak came to the results by presenting employers with two to three candidates, at least one of which was Turkish while the remaining candidates were native Norwegian.

Horverak told reporters from the NRK news agency, “Leaders who scored low on prejudice and high on emotional stability and flexibility were more inclined to hire the Turkish candidate,” The Foreigner.no reports.

However, she added, “Most of the managers in our study reported a very low proportion of foreign workers in their own department. It is also possible that they were not really trained to work closely with foreign workers.”

Horverak went on to say that she suspected that many of the managers prefer Norwegians due to an inability to relate to foreigners and a lack of experience in working alongside immigrants.

Comments are closed.