GOTHENBURG, Sweden—Thousands of Norwegians married to foreigners are not allowed to live with their spouses in Norway. An income law is splitting families apart and violates international conventions, says the Norwegian nongovernmental organization Grenselos Kjaerlighet (Love Without Borders).
A Norwegian marrying someone from another country has to earn at least 242,440 kroner (US$44,500) a year for the partner to gain permanent residency in Norway. The children of families that don’t meet the requirements suffer greatly, says Grenselos Kjaerlighet.
The organization’s chair, Frid Alstad Gaare, says the policy violates the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Convention on Human Rights with regard to family reunion and deportation.
Norway has already lost several cases in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, but “still refuses to change the way they implement the policy,” says Alstad Gaare.
For example, in 2011, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Norway had violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights in a case involving the deportation of a woman from the Dominican Republic. She was married and had two children in Norway. The court emphasized the interest of the children in its decision, as the deportation would separate them from their mother.
On Valentine’s Day this year, Grenselos Kjaerlighet will hold a protest in Oslo to draw attention to this issue.
