My name is Adrian and I'm a manager in a Norwegian IT company. My company decided to refrain from giving a statement in this case but I still feel compelled to do so as a private individual.
I understand that the law on entry restrictions that is proposed here is needed for legal reasons to be a basis for any restriction and I don't oppose that law. What I would like to highlight is how those current restrictions are disruptive and damaging to many people’s lives while not giving Norway and its people practically no increase in public health safety. Please let me explain my position by describing our situation. Our company is rather small so we don’t have a competitive advantage that big companies have to hire the best engineers available locally here in Norway. Because of that we always relied on hiring talented specialists from outside Norway and that’s why 70% of our current staff consists of foreigners. Similarly to every company we face the challenge of turnover in our workforce and the last two years were no different, we had 3 employees leave our company. Unfortunately because of the disruptions that the pandemic caused we were unable to hire enough new people to maintain our growth. We had recruited many individuals who we offered jobs in Norway but due to strict border restrictions, we were unable to relocate them to Norway so they could start their work with us. Most of them gave up on moving to Norway after many months of waiting for any sign of loosening the restriction. Unfortunately, the exceptions to the restrictions that were introduced this year did not help us. Currently, we still have three new employees outside of the EU/Schengen zone waiting eagerly for a chance to move here and start their work. They all received their work permits months ago and the border restrictions are the only thing stopping them from starting their new job. In this context, we find those restrictions way too harsh and the current list of exceptions to be completely inadequate. We do not understand how does barring entry for people who want to move to Norway to work permanently serves public health safety. Those people we hired are fully vaccinated and are willing to go through any quarantine or other reasonable restrictions serving the prevention of spreading of the coronavirus in Norway. We understand that very strict rules were helpful last year before we had vaccines and some of them are still reasonable to stop the pandemic but we argue that in this particular case: fully vaccinated individuals planning to start a new job and a long term stay in Norway, they should be allowed entry. Moreover, the country they come from should not matter as this only creates unnecessary injustice and discrimination.
In summary: we understand and support government efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus we only ask for the ability to apply for very particular exemptions to the wider rules so that the individuals allowed to work in Norway can come here and do their job.
I understand that this might not be the right place to argue for our case but I have not found any other place to express my opinion.
I understand that the law on entry restrictions that is proposed here is needed for legal reasons to be a basis for any restriction and I don't oppose that law. What I would like to highlight is how those current restrictions are disruptive and damaging to many people’s lives while not giving Norway and its people practically no increase in public health safety. Please let me explain my position by describing our situation. Our company is rather small so we don’t have a competitive advantage that big companies have to hire the best engineers available locally here in Norway. Because of that we always relied on hiring talented specialists from outside Norway and that’s why 70% of our current staff consists of foreigners. Similarly to every company we face the challenge of turnover in our workforce and the last two years were no different, we had 3 employees leave our company. Unfortunately because of the disruptions that the pandemic caused we were unable to hire enough new people to maintain our growth. We had recruited many individuals who we offered jobs in Norway but due to strict border restrictions, we were unable to relocate them to Norway so they could start their work with us. Most of them gave up on moving to Norway after many months of waiting for any sign of loosening the restriction. Unfortunately, the exceptions to the restrictions that were introduced this year did not help us. Currently, we still have three new employees outside of the EU/Schengen zone waiting eagerly for a chance to move here and start their work. They all received their work permits months ago and the border restrictions are the only thing stopping them from starting their new job. In this context, we find those restrictions way too harsh and the current list of exceptions to be completely inadequate. We do not understand how does barring entry for people who want to move to Norway to work permanently serves public health safety. Those people we hired are fully vaccinated and are willing to go through any quarantine or other reasonable restrictions serving the prevention of spreading of the coronavirus in Norway. We understand that very strict rules were helpful last year before we had vaccines and some of them are still reasonable to stop the pandemic but we argue that in this particular case: fully vaccinated individuals planning to start a new job and a long term stay in Norway, they should be allowed entry. Moreover, the country they come from should not matter as this only creates unnecessary injustice and discrimination.
In summary: we understand and support government efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus we only ask for the ability to apply for very particular exemptions to the wider rules so that the individuals allowed to work in Norway can come here and do their job.
I understand that this might not be the right place to argue for our case but I have not found any other place to express my opinion.