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Academics warn that it is urgent to have a scheme for qualified specialists from countries outside the EEA. For Russian Elizaveta, it may be too late.
Elizaveta Mikhnyuk lost her income on March 18 and is not entitled to unemployment benefit.
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Elizaveta Mikhnyuk (27) has a five-year higher education in marketing from Russia and a master’s degree from the University of Tromsø in fisheries management.
She has lived in Norway since 2014, works as a marketer and since March 18 was fired as a result of the crown crisis.
You now have no income because qualified specialists from countries outside the EEA are not entitled to unemployment benefit. At the same time, UDI has requested documentation of his income, and believes that he now earns very little to be able to remain in the country.
– I have not received any help. I was in contact with Nav and they asked me to fill out a report card, but they did not inform me that I would not receive unemployment benefits anyway, says Mikhnyuk.
– I didn’t know anything about it until I found an article about it on NRK, so I called Nav and told him all about my situation. There was no help there.
See E24 overview of corona virus consequences
The UDI has requested an annual declaration
– Well, of course it’s narrow. I have been fired for a month and a half, and I may be able to return to work in June, but two and a half months without a job is difficult, he says.
Mikhnyuk has been paid half of his vacation money to live and pay interest in the bank.
– I was paid in advance half of the vacation money, it may take a while.
But another problem has also arisen. The income requirement for qualified foreigners may slip due to lack of support.
– The UDI has requested my annual allowance and my paycheck, and they will count for the last six months until June, and I don’t care if I was fired. I’m going to lose 100,000 with him and therefore won’t get a new visa, which means I have to go out, he says desperately.
Mikhnyuk has lived in Norway for six years, and has lived together for four years.
– It would have been sad to have to leave in a month, rejects all life plans. It will not be my decision, but Norway’s decision that I must leave. It’s sad.
– I hope the regulations change. It is also sad that you pay so much in taxes and think that it is possible to help everyone, but you cannot help yourself. I have worked for four years, and two and a half of them with good pay, I pay 37 percent in taxes, so it is a bit strange that other people can spend my tax money, but not me.
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The rule change generates thousands of losses for part-time workers
– Applies to many
In recent weeks, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has been working hard to establish a new regulatory framework for qualified foreigners who are fired during the covid-19 pandemic.
After the main organization Akademikerne, together with the member organization Econa, raised the issue with the Ministry in late April, a new proposal was sent for consultation on Tuesday, May 5.
The hearing deadline was already Friday, May 8.
– This package has been going fast now. The strategy has been to create broad schemes, there has been no time to create such well-masked systems, so we understand that some groups have not thought of themselves in the first place, says Kari Sollien, director of the Academy.
She emphasizes that it is not exclusive to economists. Tekna also has many members with experience abroad who are in Norway.
– We also need them after this crisis. The challenge is that they have nothing to go home to, and we want them to come back here very quickly.
According to the UDI, more than 12,600 people have a residence permit as skilled workers in Norway, but there are no figures on how many of them actually stay here today.
Lead Kari Sollien at the Academy.
Thomas B. Eckhoff / The Academics
Valid until October
The proposed amendments to the Immigration Regulations allow qualified foreigners to continue residing in Norway, and that they can be granted a new residence permit during the layoff period, the ministry writes in the consultation letter.
The amendments to the regulation of unemployment benefits make exceptions to the requirement of occupational and geographic mobility for qualified foreigners, so that they may be entitled to unemployment benefits despite the restrictions on the residence permit. The changes will apply until October 31, 2020.
In responding to the query, academics primarily support what the government has provided.
– These people are generally considered unemployed and have to return home. They usually don’t have unemployment benefits. It is a very special situation now, both because they have nothing to go home and because they have no income.
– For the individual, these are long weeks. Two months is coming now. At the same time, one can understand that they have not been on the lazy side of the bureaucracy. It takes time and must be done properly.
Managing Director Nina Riibe of Econa.
Annette Larsen
– It feels a long time
Econa CEO Nina Riibe says the initiative came from them.
– We took the initiative with the academics, and we are very happy that the authorities decided to change and were able to carry out this consultation quickly.
– And then, this new scheme applies mainly until October 31. It’s going very fast there, so we’re excited about the government’s attitude after that. This is the specialized experience that Norwegian companies and industry need.
Two long months have passed for specialists like Elizaveta Mikhnyuk, says Riibe.
– It feels long and the scheme has been unfair. Therefore, it is important that this be done now. We saw that, we met and discussed the case, and he was taken seriously immediately. We have positive hope, says Riibe, adding:
– Econa assumes that the regulations that ensure the unemployment benefits of qualified foreigners after termination will have a retroactive effect, so that they can manage financially and have no problems with the UDI residence permit later.
UDI insecure
The UDI does not revoke residence permits for qualified foreigners who are fired, reports unit manager Paul Skoglund in the UDI residence department.
The details of Mikhnyuk’s situation are presented to him, but he expresses himself here very generally about the problem.
– Today we cannot say with certainty how important it will be in an application for renewal of the residence permit, or an application for a permanent residence permit, if the residence permit expires while the person is on leave, Skoglund writes in an email.
It also refers to the proposed amendment to unemployment benefit and immigration regulations.
– If the changes are adopted, it will give effect to the right of qualified workers to unemployment benefits and the possibility of renewing residence permits, he says.
