Short summary
- Municipalities need workers, but strict language and formal qualification requirements mean few Ukrainian refugees are hired.
- The private sector is more flexible than municipalities, even in jobs where language skills are not critical.
- Weak cooperation with HR departments and limited use of exemptions from the qualification principle mean that a large recruitment potential remains untapped.
Parts of this summary were generated using Copilot. The text has been quality-assured by OsloMet.
Municipalities are major employers in many local communities, responsible for large workplaces such as nursing homes, kindergartens and primary schools.
Many of them are in urgent need of more staff.
“In several sectors – particularly health care and early childhood education – there is high demand for labour in many municipalities,” says Trine Myrvold, researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR) at OsloMet.
“It would be a win-win situation if more refugees could be hired into these municipal services,” she adds.
One might assume that when a significant number of working age people suddenly move into a municipality, open positions would quickly be filled.
But this is not the case, according to the fourth annual survey of Ukrainian refugees’ experiences in Norway (nva.sikt.no), which NIBR prepares on behalf of the Directorate of Integration and Diversity (IMDi).
Language requirements are perceived as a far greater barrier in the public sector than in the private sector.– Trine Myrvold
More bureaucratic and rigid
Norway’s population has increased by 83,000 Ukrainian refugees since 2022.
Despite the fact that the vast majority want to work, many refugee services report difficulties getting them into internships or jobs within municipal services.
“It is challenging to get municipal workplaces to hire Ukrainian refugees. Municipalities are seen as more bureaucratic and rigid than private-sector employers, who are described as more open, flexible and less focused on formalities,” Myrvold says.
Recruitment problems are especially common in health and care services, but also in schools and kindergartens.
Myrvold argue that investing in refugees so they become qualified for these services could be highly valuable for local communities.
“Municipalities often require formal qualifications, including language proficiency, which stops the entire process,” says Myrvold.
In some sectors, such as kindergartens, the state sets the qualification requirements. In others, individual municipalities decide.
Language requirements, in particular, are often applied too strictly, according to the researchers.
“Language requirements are seen as a much larger barrier in the public sector than in the private sector. Lack of language skills is not only a barrier for individual refugees, it becomes a structural barrier that prevents more Ukrainians from finding municipal jobs,” Myrvold says.
Even for more technical or manual jobs where language plays a minor role in the actual work, municipalities maintain strict requirements.
“It is surprising how few municipalities have hired refugees in technical services,” Myrvold says.
Weak cooperation with recruiters
Some municipalities have succeeded in bringing refugees into their own services. There are examples of municipal leaders who have required departments to take in refugees for internships, often combined with language training during the placement.
But most refugee services lack close cooperation with municipal HR departments:
- A minority say they work closely with those responsible for recruitment.
- Almost half say they cooperate somewhat with HR.
- One in three say they have no cooperation at all.
- Smaller municipalities tend to collaborate more with recruiters than larger ones.
Fewer report cooperation with HR in 2025 than in 2024.
“That is surprising, given the increased attention over the past year, for example through KS’s ‘Refugees into Work’ initiative. But it may be that the lower number of new refugees makes this seem less important,” says Myrvold.
Exemptions from the qualification principle
In Norway’s public sector, the qualification principle states that the person with the best qualifications must be hired.
There are, however, exceptions.
Since 2024, exemptions may be used for a limited number of positions when the purpose is to include people who are outside work, education or training, as well as people with disabilities.
“Only one third say they have used this exemption. There is clear potential to use it more to bring refugees into the municipal labour market,” Myrvold says, and adds:
“All in all, there seems to be untapped potential in using refugees’ labour in municipal services, something that would benefit both the refugees and the municipalities that need workers.”
