Opening welcome by the Norwegian Minister of Social Affaires, Ms. Ingjerd Schou, at the ISSA-conference inOslo, 21.04.04

It is a great pleasure to welcome you to this European regional meeting of ISSA 2004, hosted by the Norwegian National Insurance Administration, the National Insurance Court and the Ministry of social affaires.

The purpose of the European Regional ISSA-conferences is to discuss important issues in the field of social security in the member organisations in Europe. It is important to meet people from different parts of Europe to discuss common issues and challenges, and to share experiences and solutions. I am also glad to see representatives from other parts of the world. This gives the coming discussions a broader and world wide perspective.

The main theme of this conference is Migrants and Social protection.

In the perspective of increasing globalisation and internationalisation, this is becoming a highly important topic, especially in relation to the enlargement of the European Union – which is only a few days a head of us. This means that the right of free movement to work and the right to social protection within the union will include millions of new European citizens. In addition we have the increasing migration and immigration from other parts of the world as well.

It is therefore very important to discuss the implications of migration on social security both within the European countries, and to Europe from other parts of the world.

To succeed in our integration and migration policy, we must make arrangements to include our new citizens in all parts of the society. By this we face several challenges:

Challenges for the community

Inclusion in the daily life of the community, school, family-activities are important parts of a successful migration. The communities must open up for the migrants to settle down.

Challenges for the working life

A main key to integration and inclusion in the society is to be included in the working life. To maintain a decent living standard and to prevent poverty, it is crucial that people are able to provide for themselves and their family by paid work. This is the main element in our social policy, both on national and international level.

It is important not to look at migrants as clients with need for social support, but to acknowledge their skills, educational background and work experience from their home country. Our new citizens bring along a lot of recourses that we need to acknowledge.

This is also important as we, at least in Norway, might face a lack of qualified workers to meet our demands for labour in the future. The aging population will create a demand for new services, and most important, we need new generations of workers to support our welfare system in the future. In this perspective, it is crucial that we succeed in our migration policy.

Norway has already a high work participation among all groups of the population. Still, we face the development that an increasingly part of the population falls out of the labour market due to sickness or disability. The Government and the social partners have made an agreement to create a more inclusive labour market – with a place for all who can and wants to work. You will hear more about this agreement later in the conference.

The concept of an inclusive labour market is also important when it comes to migration and integration of new citizens. It is obvious that the inclusion of these groups in the labour market will also affect the implications on social security and national welfare systems.

Challenges for social security and welfare arrangements

The increasing migration within countries in Europe and to Europe from other parts of the world, creates some challenges for our national welfare systems. We have had the debate on social dumping and social tourism. It is a fact that the level of social protection is relatively generous in Europe compared to other parts of the world. This opens up for the possibility of social tourism.

To what extent will people move to countries to achieve better benefits and better welfare arrangements? To what extent can migrants claim the same rights as the other residents of this country? And what about export of social benefits – which are one of the important elements in the European policy of free movement of workers and their families.

These are all questions we need to face, and which I am glad will be discussed during these days here in Oslo

The European Union and countries in the European economic area have good arrangements to coordinate the welfare systems, so that the right to social protection are not weakened for the European citizens when moving around. These issues will meet new challenges when the new member states are included in the European Union, and also we will face some new challenges when discussing social protection of migrants from other parts of the world.

In this conference there will be a panel discussion between experts from different countries to have a closer look at these challenges. I think it will be an interesting and useful debate.

Then again, let me welcome you to this conference. I await the discussions and exchange of views that will take place. I really hope these three days will provide inspiration to face the challenges that lays ahead of us in the months and years to come.

Increased globalisation and migration is an unavoidable and positive development. Let us face the challenges and the possibilities together.

Thank you for your attention.