New in Norway – online information

The project is implemented by The Norwegian Directorate of Integration and Diversity (IMDi), the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration, and the Norwegian Directorate of Health in Norway. It began in January 2023 and is currently ongoing.

www.nyinorge.no is a multi-lingual online portal for reliable information about rules, rights and regulations from Norwegian public authorities and NGOs to newcomers. The aim is to provide refugees and immigrants with better information about Norwegian society and increase their possibility to navigate and assist themselves. The website covers topics such as residence permits, work, education and health care. The first publicized version targets displaced people from Ukraine in Norway. Upcoming versions will include other immigrant groups and languages.

The project's goals are:

• For newly arrived refugees and immigrants to get a better understanding of their rights, possibilities, and duties. This, in turn, may enhance their possibilities of finding their way in a new society, finding a job and becoming self-reliant in Norway.
• That the website supplements and eases the pressure on various public authorities, as immigrants and refugees can access official information in a language they understand.
• That the website provides a direct information channel to newcomers and can easily be scaled up in case of changes in migrant-flows and arrivals, or be adapted to challenges and changing needs for information.

Main activities of the Good Practice

The site acts as a hub for accessing public information from public authorities in Norway. This increases the speed of inclusion for the refugees, and reduces the number of resources the state must use on first response guidance in public offices, by making newly arrived immigrants able to get reliable information in a language they understand.

The site is structured in a way that makes it easy to reorganize depending on what type of information the newly arrived individual needs, and what message Norwegian authorities want to transmit to the users of the page. For example, the page can easily be used as an information channel for information about health and vaccines under a new pandemic and be restructured to highlight this. Or, as today, highlights work opportunities and strategies to become economically self-reliant in Norway.

Elements which helped facilitate the implementation of the good practice

The mandate is assigned to IMDi by the Norwegian Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion. IMDi is responsible for the development and operation of the website and collaborates with public authorities within employment, health and immigration. Furthermore, IMDi interacts with more than 20 public authorities to identify, produce and publish holistic information to refugees and immigrants.

It is established reference groups with representation of immigrant communities, and extended use of user surveys to better customize content and outreach to the target groups.

The public sector in Norway has a great amount of information published online already, so the website functions as a hub linking to authorized information from relevant sector authorities.

Partners involved

• The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration
• The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration
• The Norwegian Directorate of Health

What challenges were encountered in delivering the project and how were they overcome?

Challenges

Publishing coherent information in multiple languages is very resource-intensive. The website is currently available in four languages (Ukrainian, English, Russian and Norwegian). Separate websites, structures and links must be created for each language. When there are changes and adjustments in the content, this must be done manually for all the different pages.

When including information to other immigrant groups, IMDi must consider many new languages and the use of videos and audio tracks to meet the various needs of the target groups. IMDi has developed the website within the allocated budget for 2023. An expansion of target groups will require a need for more investment funds to further develop the project.

How they were overcome

The project has assessed how languages at nyinorge.no can be managed. We recommend the use of a few selected languages, for example, the five or six most important ones, in combination with translation tools. It will be time-saving and less resource-intensive to run the website and update the content when the content is published in a few selected languages. The project will also identify an agile technical development to meet the challenges of ensuring coherent content production.

Results of the Good Practice

The number of newly arrived immigrants to Norway is close to 200,000 in the last three years. The site provides residents with quality-assured information from public authorities in Norway. If we also include immigrants with a longer period of residence, public first-line personnel and volunteers who assist immigrants locally, we will be able to assist a significant number of people in Norway with secure and up-to-date information from public authorities.

The first publicized version, targeting displaced people from Ukraine in Norway, was by October 26th visited by 30,000 people. The visitors read information on rights, obligations and other information related to arrival in Norway, settlement and living in Norway.

In what way does the good practice meet one or more of the four objectives of the Global Compact on Refugees?

Objective 1: Ease the pressures on host countries

The website acts as a hub for accessing public information from public authorities in Norway. This increases the speed of inclusion for the refugees, and reduces the number of resources the state must use on first response guidance in public offices, by making newly arrived immigrants able to get reliable information in a language they understand.

Objective 2: Enhance refugee self-reliance

The website provides reliable information from official authorities on various topics. Newly arrived refugees and immigrants get a better understanding of their rights, possibilities, and duties. This, in turn, may enhance their possibilities of finding their way in a new society and becoming self-reliant in a new country.

Next steps

The project will continue to assess, test and further develop digital services, including the use of artificial intelligence, to ensure viable and sustainable content production and to translate multiple languages. Digital services will search for content on public websites, retrieve relevant content and categorize the content so that it can be published in a good way to the right target groups.

There is a need to create a systematic user dialog to ensure that the website meets the needs of the target groups. The project is planning on establishing a ‘user panel’ to ensure continuous user insight.

Are there areas in which support would be required to continue and/or scale up your good practice?

We would like to gain more expertise in the field of AI related to information gathering and translation.