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Why do people leave Norway? Dissatisfaction with the health care system is one reason
Immigrants do not think health care services are good enough.
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Thirty thousand people emigrate from Norway every year. The majority of them are immigrants who later return to their home country. Young Europeans leave the most often.
One of the reasons that emigrants give for moving from Norway is dissatisfaction with the Norwegian health care system.
I didn’t like the communication with my GP. I asked him about some tests I used to take in Ukraine. The doctor said that there was no reason to send me to a specialist at this stage. But in Ukraine, there was always a specialist who checked me.
(From an interview with a refugee, NIBR report 2023:11)
Healthcare is not the only reason – and rarely the most important one – that people choose to leave Norway, but it is mentioned as one of several reasons.
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Dissatisfaction among all immigrant groups
Aadne Aasland studies welfare, migration and integration at OsloMet.
He is involved with a large research project on emigration from Norway titled ExitNorway.
The researchers were surprised that Norwegian health services are more often seen as a reason to leave than to stay.
“We were surprised when we saw this tendency in the results of our surveys and interviews. We found dissatisfaction with health services among all immigrant groups,” Aasland says.
One immigrant believes that the best solution is to go to France or Germany to get necessary medical care. Others believe that they can get better and cheaper health insurance services in the United States through an employer.
Norwegians have positive experiences
Most Norwegians are satisfied with the healthcare services in this country.
A large majority of patients are satisfied with their GP, whom they find to be professionally competent and who takes them seriously, even if the wait for an appointment can be too long. These findings are from a survey by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) (in Norwegian).
Eighty-one percent of the survey participants in Kantar's annual health policy barometer report good or very good experiences with the healthcare service. It is true that a third of the respondents say that they have not received the necessary healthcare in the past year, and many fear that capacity will worsen in the years to come.
Norway scores better than other countries for people with chronic diseases, who report good experiences and results. Patients’ trust in the healthcare system is high, according to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (in Norwegian).
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Not taken seriously
Aasland has worked most with Ukrainians, both those who come to Norway and those who return home.
When asked about various Norwegian welfare services, health services were rated low compared to schools, kindergartens and education.
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Thirty percent of Ukrainians in Norway say that they themselves or someone in their close family has a serious health problem. They are satisfied with the medical care they receive, according to an NIBR report from 2024.
Otherwise, much of the dissatisfaction among Ukrainians is that they are not taken seriously by doctors.
Better and faster help in their home country
“They experience the GP as a gatekeeper who blocks the way to specialists and medicines that patients feel they need,” says Aasland.
Norway comes up short when Ukrainians compare their home country's healthcare services with Norway’s. They experience frustration and feel vulnerable. To get help, they contact doctors in Ukraine.
“They are surprised that we wait so long to seek help. They tend to go to the doctor more quickly, even with minor things like colds,” says Aasland.
Not only Ukrainians expect more help. Other immigrants also experience their home country's health care system as more efficient and more willing to hand out medication.
“In particular, they expect doctors to prescribe them antibiotics. Norway is quite restrictive about that,” says Aasland.
Culture crash
Aasland calls it a culture crash.
“The threshold for seeing a doctor and specialist is much higher in Norway than in Ukraine, for example, and this also applies to the use of medication.”
Aasland believes it could be useful to address the topic in the introductory programme that refugees receive when they come to Norway.
“In that setting, more information about how things are done in Norwegian society and what to expect could be explained.”
Not all of the immigrants who were interviewed were dissatisfied with the health system in Norway. One of them can relate to how Norway’s health system works:
I don't like going to the doctor. I do like the Norwegians do and treat myself with water.
Reference:
Aadne Aasland and Oleksandra Deineko: Why Exit? Exploring the Motivations of Displaced Ukrainians Leaving Norway. Central and Eastern European Migration Review, 2025. Doi: 10.54667/ceemr.2025.11
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Translated by Ingrid P. Nuse
Read the Norwegian version of this article at forskning.no
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