Ukrainian refugees need jobs. So why aren’t more of them being hired?

Norway’s population has increased by 83,000 Ukrainian refugees since 2022.

The vast majority of them want to work. But many refugee services report difficulties getting refugees into internships or jobs within municipal services.

In urgent need of more staff

Municipalities are major employers in many local communities. They are responsible for large workplaces such as nursing homes, kindergartens, and primary schools.

Many of them are in urgent need of more staff.

“In several sectors – particularly health care and early childhood education – there is high demand for labour in many municipalities,” says Trine Myrvold.

She is a researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR) at OsloMet.

“It would be a win-win situation if more refugees could be hired into these municipal services,” she says.

One might assume that when a significant number of working age people suddenly move into a municipality, open positions would quickly be filled.

But this is not the case, according to the fourth annual survey of Ukrainian refugees’ experiences in Norway.

More bureaucratic and rigid

“It's challenging to get municipal workplaces to hire Ukrainian refugees. Municipalities are seen as more bureaucratic and rigid than employers in the private sector. The latter are described as more open, flexible, and less focused on formalities,” Myrvold says.

Recruitment problems are especially common in health and care services, but also in schools and kindergartens.

Myrvold argues that investing in refugees so they become qualified for these services could be highly valuable for local communities.

“Municipalities often require formal qualifications, including language proficiency, which stops the entire process,” she says.

Believe language requirements are applied too strictly

In some sectors, such as kindergartens, the state sets the qualification requirements. But in other sectors, it's up to each individual municipality to set the requirements.

Language requirements, in particular, are often applied too strictly, according to the researchers.

“Language requirements are seen as a much larger barrier in the public sector than in the private sector," says Myrvold. 

Lack of language skills is not only a barrier for individual refugees. It becomes a structural barrier that prevents more Ukrainians from finding municipal jobs, the researcher explains.

For more technical or manual jobs, where language plays a minor role in the actual work, municipalities still impose strict requirements.

“It's surprising how few municipalities have hired refugees in technical services,” Myrvold says.

Do not cooperate with those responsible for recruitment

Some municipalities have succeeded in bringing refugees into their own services. There are examples of municipal leaders who have required departments to accept refugees for internships.

This is often combined with language training during the internship period.

But most refugee services lack close cooperation with municipal HR departments:

• A minority say they work closely with those responsible for recruitment.
• Almost half say they cooperate somewhat with HR.
• One in three say they have no cooperation at all.
• Smaller municipalities tend to collaborate more with recruiters than larger ones.

Fewer report cooperation with HR in 2025 than in 2024.

Myrvold says this is surprising, given the increased attention over the past year. For example through the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities' Refugees into Work initiative.

“But it may be that the lower number of new refugees makes this seem less important,” she says.

Exceptions to the qualification principle

In Norway’s public sector, the qualification principle states that the person with the best qualifications must be hired.

There are, however, exceptions.

Since 2024, exceptions can be made if it concerns a small number of positions and if the purpose is inclusion of people who are outside work, education, and training.

The exception also applies to people with disabilities.

Myrvold explains that only one third say they have used this. There is clear potential to use the exception to get more refugees into the municipal labour market.

“All in all, there seems to be untapped potential in using refugees’ labour in municipal services, something that would benefit both the refugees and the municipalities that need workers,” she says.

Reference:

Hernes et al. Integration trajectories and future prospects: Experiences and perceptions of Ukrainian refugees and municipal refugee services in Norway (2024-2025), NIBR Report, 2025.

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