Refugees get schooled on respect amid cultural differences in Norway
World
Refugees get schooled on respect amid cultural differences in Norway
In a bid to prevent violence against women, Norway is offering asylum seekers courses in how to interpret mores in a country that may seem astonishingly liberal to them. A debate on integration has flared in Germany after New Year’s Eve attacks in Cologne, where more than 100 women reported being sexually assaulted or robbed by men described as being of Arab or North African origin. Questions are also being raised about how to integrate men from patriarchal societies into Europe, where emancipated women dress skimpily, go out, and drink and party.
There has to be tolerance for attitudes that may be seen as immoral by some traditional or religious norms.
Linda Hagen of Hero, a private company that runs 40 percent of Norway’s reception centers for asylum seekers
Belgium on Friday said it would follow Norway’s example and introduce similar courses “in the coming weeks." While on a much smaller scale than the Cologne assaults, other incidents have been reported involving foreigners on New Year’s Eve in Helsinki and Zurich, in countries that have opened their doors to migrants to a much lesser extent than Germany.
To put an end to these attitudes, immigration has to first be restricted, then you have to concentrate on the newly-arrived immigrants and the second generation to assimilate them to our basic values, such as gender equality.
Hege Storhaug of the anti-immigration group Human Rights Service
