Oslo: On the Road to Becoming an Intercultural City

Abstract

The Oslo city government, in partnership with a dynamic civil society, has engaged in policy-making and diversity management, reflected in consistently high rankings for Oslo in the Intercultural Cities Index of the Council of Europe. Equality of access to services and maintenance of social trust are fundamental values of Oslo’s approach. Heavy investment in childcare, education and language tuition is paying off. Youth of minority background are performing strongly at university and in many sectors of the labour market. Still some tricky issues must be resolved: discrimination in recruitment processes and private housing and welfare dependency amongst some minority groups. A “timeline” of significant moments discusses key policy choices to be made and how the city faced up to them, arriving at some conclusions on OXLO—Oslo Extra Large strategy.