Right, Henrik Asheim | Conservatives want to toughen immigration policy:

OSLO MET (Nettavisen): On Monday, the Conservative Party program committee presented its proposal for a new party program for the Storting period 2021-2025.

There, the committee proposes a stricter immigration policy in several areas.

– We want to toughen up something more than what we have done in the current period, says the vice chairman of the program committee and Minister of Higher Education, Henrik Asheim (H), to Nettavisen.

Watch the video interview with Asheim at the top of the case.

Main rule: temporary

As a general rule, the program committee proposes to grant temporary residence only to refugees coming to Norway. The program proposal also states that “they hope to return to the areas where people have fled when this is safe.”

– We will help more people fleeing to safe third countries. We can help more people with the same money that way, Asheim says of the aid they want to prioritize in surrounding areas, in line with what the Progress Party has proposed for many years.

The proposal states that the Conservatives will study a system in which Norway provides protection to vulnerable people in need of protection, by paying for relocation to safe third countries.

The program committee will also increase the residence requirement from three to six years for a permanent residence permit for citizens outside the EEA and the Nordic countries. As well as introducing requirements of at least four years of self-sufficiency and labor participation requirements to obtain a permanent residence permit, unless special reasons indicate that it is not reasonable.

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Stronger reunification

The party is also getting tougher when it comes to family reunification, with several new demands for those who want to bring their family to Norway.

– We make some demands for family reunification, where we say that you must be able to support your family in order to take them to Norway, says Asheim, and at the same time points out:

– The quota of refugees that we receive should preferably be whole families or groups that are easy to integrate into our country.

The program proposal states that the immigration of refugees into the country will take place primarily through the withdrawal of the refugee quota.

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– Negotiate after the elections

At the same time, Asheim emphasizes that even if they toughen their immigration policy, they have a responsibility to help those who are fleeing.

– But do you make these changes to meet Frp in your own territory?

– No, not really. I think we’ve wanted to say similar things on shows in the past. And then we also know that we will negotiate with other parties on the bourgeois side about the policy that is being followed, but this is the main position of the conservatives, and then we will have to negotiate after the elections, says the vice president of the program committee.

The program proposal also states that conservatives must:

• Follow a strict, predictable and sustainable immigration policy.
• Work for pan-European solutions for refugee and migration policy.
• Citizenship will not be granted if the applicant actively opposes or refuses to cooperate in self-identification work.
• Do not install immigrants in areas where the proportion of immigrants is greater than 30 percent.
• That asylum seekers and refugees in same-sex relationships should have the right to family reunification with their spouse / partner.

• Ensure a good education in Norwegian social values ​​and norms, especially in relation to the acceptance of women, sexual and religious minorities and freedom of expression.

SV responds to proposals

However, MP Karin Andersen (SV) has little left for conservative proposals:

– Only those refugees who have good finances should be able to be together as a family, Greetings Conservatives. What if it was you, Helleland, who lost everything and had to flee and then had to live in eternal fear for your children and the children had to live without courage because you didn’t earn “enough,” Andersen writes on Twitter, referring to Program committee leader Linda Hofstad Helleland.

Watch the interview with Asheim here: