Multicultural Norway?

I think that most people consider Norway to be a homogeneous land full of blue-eyed, blonde-haired descendants of the Vikings.  Reality is more complex.  First, most Norwegians are not blonde.  Second, particularly in the larger cities, there are many residents with non-Norwegian ethnic backgrounds.  Norway's demographics are changing.    In Oslo, 26% of the residents are immigrants.  Tove and I attended a Christmas party at a friend's home Friday night.  The host is from Finland.  The hostess is from Chechnya.  There were two other couples there.  One of the couples are immigrants from Bosnia.  The other couple are a Norwegian and his wife from Kosovo.  All of the immigrants spoke fluent Norwegian (except for me, but I am getting better).

In other multicultural news, I attended my post-exam party along with my fellow students who took level 3 Norwegian at NTNU this Fall.  We held the party at Den Gode Nabo.  The photos were taken by a fellow student's spouse.

From Thailand and China

Me n' our Norsklærer

Students from Iran, Germany, Spain, Spain and Germany  

Most of the students in our Norwegian class are graduate students at NTNU.  Others are married to academic employees of the university.  A few of us were admitted because of our strong educational background (There is a waiting list).  Last year, I took Norwegian through the city's language program.  Other immigrants take classes at the community college.  Immigrants coming to Norway after January 2012 must take 550 hours of Norwegian and 50 hours of Norwegian Social Studies.  I think that is great.