The Past of OIWC
Oslo International Welcome Center (OIWC) is an initiative by “Oslo International House”, supported by the “Oslo Region Alliance”.
The topic of welcoming international skilled migrants to Norway and assisting them along their journey has always been the concern of many organizations and authorities. One of the most important reasons is to value them as assets and benefit from their expertise / background to improve the Norwegian job market.
Despite the number of organizations operating under such an outlook, being welcomed to Norway is yet a dream to come true for many migrants! They either build coping mechanisms and proactively pave the way towards something acceptable, or leave for a more international and diverse environment.
This project is aiming at tackling the mentioned issue by looking at the migration ecosystem to Norway from 2 main angles:
- Insights from the migrants
- Thoughts and services by the involved organizations. The project tends to:
- Dig deep naturally and map the ecosystem
- Identify the challenges with their root causes
- Map and understand the current services and evaluate their impact
- Design packages of services by optimizing / unifying the current services plus building the needed new ones
It is our job to welcome you here.
Oslo Welcome Center offers a multi-approach program that provides professional and cultural upskilling activities, as well as a strong emphasis on professional development and local employment insertion for skilled immigrants.
It is our mission to welcome and develop international talents and assist them from a local perspective.
And most importantly, we want to help internationals put their experience and skills into practice in the Norwegian job market.
How can skilled immigrants find the right spot to develop their talents in order to gain professional and cultural experience?
As anywhere, finding that dream job is not easy, but Oslo International Welcome Center is also a connecting point for companies and highly skilled internationals and migrants in Oslo.
We operate as an info center with services to make sure the whole process of integration into Norwegian society and business network will go as smooth as possible. Social events, workshops, seminars, presentations on a regular basis are organized to make expats feel welcomed, included and successful.
SERIES OF ACTIVITIES AND CORE PHASES OF THE PROJECT
PHASE 1: Research / Learning by doing
All 3 main initiators of this project, Oslo International Hub, Oslo Regionen and Systemic Design are active contributors to the migration ecosystem in Norway and globally - by conducting multiple services and having close contact with migrants and authorities.
Their inhouse team is very international and they each are coming from years of experience and efforts in this field and have been personally migrants in various countries.
Therefore, they are very familiar with the challenges and have ideas to solve them.
However, they also believe that such a systemic challenge cannot be solved in some few corners only and requires a more collective act.
This has become the base for initiating such a project.
PHASE 2: Oslo International Welcome Week
(Series of roundtables with migrants)
(Series of roundtables with migrants)
As part of their services, Oslo International House has been for years running a series of events branded as Oslo International Welcome Week, from 31st of August – 4th September 2020.
The series were conducted as part of this project and mostly online due to Covid.
The aim of the series was to gather the migrants' insights and hear their challenges, and the topics of the roundtables were as follows:
- OIWW Roundtable I: Welcoming international professionals - Discussing income alternatives
- OIWW Fireplace chat: Exit interview with Investor moving out of Norway
- OIWW Fireplace chat: Professional career empowerment in Norway for women - PWN
- OIWW Fireplace chat: Challenges of relocation paperwork – Norwegian system
- OIWW Fireplace chat: Repatriates’ place in the job market
- OIWW Roundtable II: Discussing the role of origin and identity in migration
- OIWW Fireplace chat: What is Norway? Meaning, values, brand – at the UN
- OIWW Seminar: Senior professional – new to Oslo? Become a mentor or business angel as a way into the job market – OIWW Seminar
- OIWW/BAN Seminar: Meet the Oslo region startup scene – top10 startups
- OIWW Fireplace chat: How to get a job in Norway - The streetsmart version
- OIWW Fireplace chat: Is Norway welcoming world-class talent?
- OIWW Roundtable III: Discussing the meaning of belongingness in migration setting Politicians’ debate: Does Norway need a welcome center and a National Skills Strategy?
- OIWW Seminar: Recruitment process in Norway / across cultures.
PHASE 3: Stakeholders Roundtable
(A large roundtable with the Oslo region organizations)
(A large roundtable with the Oslo region organizations)
The Stakeholder Roundtable was an online event held in the 20th of November 2020.
It was designed by Systemically Designed (SD) where Oslo Region and Oslo International Hub gathered their network of stakeholders from the region of Oslo.
The invited stakeholders were selected based on their active contribution and impact on the lives of different types of immigrants in Norway through their journeys.
The objective was to see the existing journey of different immigrants.
Main outcome of the roundtable was a large agreement about the need for a unifying brand and identity.
Something which represents all the services in a package of offerings to the migrants.
A main place which gives a common ground of action to the migration ecosystem of Norway and represents all of their efforts.
- University of Oslo (UiO)
- Bourmani rådgivning og integrering
- Oslo Chamber of Commerce (OCC)
- Halden kommune + Søndre Viken Næringsregion
- Directorate for Integration and Diversity (IMDi)
- Relocation AS
- Inter-Nationals
- Interim Norger AS
- Evergreen Management
- Professional Women’s Network