Economics

As far back as 1972, Norway had a referendum on whether or not to join the European Union (EU). For reference, this was so far back that the EU didn’t even exist yet. It was only the Economic European Community (EEC) back then. Narrowly, the population voted about 53% nay. There was another referendum, a lot more recently, in 1994. That time, it was even more narrow, with 52% voting nay. Sweden, which had referendum at around the same time, voted 53% yay instead, and became a member of the EU. This raises a perfectly obvious question: was the Norwegian public wise in these two landmark decisions? Clearly it is not a cut-and-dry issue, as all that decided the outcome was only about 100,000 people. If 100,000 more people were convinced that EU would be to Norway’s benefit – rather than to its detriment – Norway would have been an EU member in either 1972 or 1994. Let’s examine this more closely. ...

My name is Maxwell Jensen. I was born and raised in Norway, but my story begins in Poland. My father was a naval officer from Gdańsk who sought asylum in Norway in 1986, and my mother immigrated from Zambrów in 1996. The goal here is to share some insights that might be relevant to Norwegians, or really, anyone who finds multicultural exchanges interesting. We all know we live in a world of global exchange – not just of goods, but of ideas and culture. With this short essay, I hope to offer some insights and constructive criticism that everyone can use to expand their worldview. While I don’t believe that simply importing people of fundamentally incompatible cultures constitutes a valid social policy, I do believe every culture offers at least one thing that can widen our perception of the world for the better. And let me be clear, this is a two-way street: my life in Norway has had a formative, profoundly positive impact on how I view the world, which I will get into later. ...