In november I applied for about Norwegian citizenship. If all goes well then I get it in the course of the next year. While I’m waiting, I can’t help thinking about what it would mean to suddenly be Norwegian.

Francis Augusto Medeiros-Logeay. Show more

Let me first clarify that I did not have applied for Norwegian citizenship, for practical reasons. I’m not coming on something that will be so much easier in my daily life because I am Norwegian, so many might want to believe. My permanent residence permit gives me all the rights I need to feel safe, and to be able to live a good and worthwhile life here in Norway.

No, I choose to be English because I know the me again, in the Norwegian way of life, in values and transparency in Norwegian society is characterized by. If my country of origin is as a mother, so is my relationship to my new country more like a marriage, based on a choice, respect, shared values and love.

I am in principle keen to find out what is my place here after I get the red passport and if I want to become a second-class citizen after that.

I will always be a little bit brazilian, no matter if I lose my brazilian citizenship. I don’t have childhood memories of snowy mountain and I will never speak Norwegian to native norwegians do. In fact, I’m never going to lose my strong accent and almost compulsive dislocation of the prepositions every time I try to talk freely and inadvertently in English.

not to talk about the Norwegian dialects. Moving to the united STATES, learns English, and then you are done with it. In Norway are many like me, they have moved here as adults and have a fear to go to meetings at work or to sit in the canteen with colleagues who speak very fast on one of the most beautiful, but incomprehensible, the dialects from the South or the west coast.

But it’s not about it, that is.

I wonder if I still can be considered as a Norwegian.

In Norway is one who has immigrated here, rarely called “Norwegian”. It is said that he is “a Norwegian citizen” or “has a Norwegian passport”. This stands in contrast to the united STATES, for example, which is built of immigrants, where all who are citizens can call themselves “american”, not only “american citizen”. I am well aware that the “people” and “nation” are terms that have special meanings in political science, law and sociology, but here I am most concerned about perceptions. Can those who have immigrated here also call themselves Norwegian?

few months ago came ^ with a report: “Neighborhoods emptied of ethnic norwegians”. Suddenly I realized that it is not enough to study, work hard and try as best you can to be the most integrated. It is not to be “ethnic Norwegian” can mean to not be accepted as a full citizen.

And although I was received very well by my excellent, smiling and kind neighbors, and also of my colleagues at work, I began to wonder if he is seen as a kind of second-class citizen on the grounds of ethnicity. I see that the discussions about the headscarf, håndhilsning and other matters as discussed in connection with some innvandringsgrupper, as muslims, can be in its place, but I fear that this is intrinsically about ethnicity. That we will never be Norwegian enough. This seems very strange in a secular country like Norway.

In a similar view, saying Asle Toje in an interview with Aftenposten that being Norwegian means “that we speak English, that we think in English, and that we see ourselves in each other.” This definition is too narrow, and disappoint me. Should you have to think in English to be considered English, so I’m going short here since I don’t think in English. Not all the time, at least. And I don’t know if I get some points here, since norsken min varies from incomprehensible Monday morning to the pleasant and friendly on Friday.

But it is not only these experiences suggest that the immigrant norwegians (if we can called “norwegians” …) are in a rank: The law separates us into classes. After 1. January, immigrants are subjected to revocation of citizenship by criminal offences. It means that some norwegians can perform criminal acts and then be convicted and serve their sentence under the Norwegian rettsprinsippene, while those who do not receive citizenship at birth is exposed to straffrettsprosesser in the country that may not take the same consideration to human rights. In the whole debate about statsborgerprøven, it was said that “citizenship should hang out loud”, but now we know that this does not apply to all.

The last years, it has pågåt t a series of debates in the Norwegian media that can seem a little intimidating for some of us. May our sons and daughters dress up in costume? They can be programledere on TV 17. may? They can be culture?

In country founded on immigration, the united STATES, would these debates seemed discriminatory. That førstedamen in the united STATES has a foreign origin, has not received very much attention. Here in Norway there is a larger urge for national selvbekreftelse, perhaps best represented by the eternal repetition of that foreign flags are unwanted on the 17. may. Or by the fact that the second-generation-immigrants are offended when they are asked where they come from. Although I like to be asked about it, but understand that for many who are born and raised in Norway, the question may seem offensive. As if they are not Norwegian enough.

But what is expected the children? Let us not forget that they could now also lose the citizenship of his despite the fact that it was not their fault if the parents (or grandparents) their cheated when applying for citizenship. And daily experiencing a lot of the, not always so subtle, messages that they are not Norwegian enough.

I think it is the legal system that defines the best how civilized and developed a country is. Therefore is my ideal definition of who can be considered as norwegians, just the one who is in the act. Even if culture and tradition is important, and is a part of who we are, so are the values that are in the law even more important: That we are all equal, that we all have “the same burdens and duties”. It is just that, and other values – such as generosity, openness, and respect for life, which meant that I would like to be a part of Norway.

the united STATES is known for a romantic idea, the american dream, where everyone who works hard can enjoy the country’s freedom and do what they want. I’m a little unsure if there is a corresponding Norwegian dream.