This report considers the question of what happens when refugees and other migrants initially gain permission to stay in Norway but subsequently are made aware that they may lose their permits, and in some cases lose their right to stay altogether. Over the past few years, Norwegian immigration authorities have intensified their practice of revoking permits mainly due to immigrants having provided faulty information or because conditions are said to have improved in the immigrants’ countries of origin.
This report is based on interviews with individuals with Somali and Afghan backgrounds living in Norway. Since this is a sensitive topic, we were wholly dependent on the assistance of representatives within the two communities to reach interviewees with relevant experience. We are very grateful to the individuals who were willing to help us and are impressed with the trust that these actions reflect—trust both in the research we are undertaking and, by extension, in the Norwegian institutions that have commissioned this research and want to learn about the effects of revocation policies in practice.
