Norwegians aren’t jumping at Trump’s invitation to emigrate to America.
They’ve been unenthusiastic about moving here for a while. According to a Reuters report:
While hundreds of thousands of Norwegians emigrated to the U.S. in the 19th century, just 502 out of a population of 5.3 million people moved there in 2016, down 59 from the previous year, according to Statistics Norway
And it doesn’t look as if the trend is about to change any time soon.
The Norwegians aren’t flattered by Trump’s recent comment contrasting their homeland with “s—hole countries” like Haiti and El Salvador. According to the Reuters article, they found the remark inappropriate and racist.
And they’re quite happy where they are.
The Reuters report noted that:
The Nordic country, one of the richest in the world by GDP per capita, was last year named the happiest nation on the planet and is known for a cradle-to-grave welfare state funded in part by large reserves of oil and natural gas.
This is certainly not the kind of society Americans like Trump yearn for. He is deliberately dismantling America’s social safety net, apparently determined to eliminate any trace of “socialism.”
His vision of America is a capitalist jungle in which the rich and powerful reign supreme and the vulnerable are abandoned to suffer and die.
He is also reversing Obama-era environmental protections, expanding oil and gas exploration in national parks and offshore waters and subverting the justice system in an apparent effort to consolidate his power.
I can understand why Norwegians would shun Trump’s America. Indeed, if he wins a second term, I wouldn’t be surprised if millions of Americans emigrate to countries like Norway.
