Two hundred kilometres above the Arctic Circle hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers are finding a new life in northern Norway, but recently the doors have been shutting on those desperate to start fresh in the High North.
2014 was a very good year for news and stories from the Barents Region and the Arctic. BarentsObserver last year had 30 percent more readers than the year before. Not surprisingly, articles covering security issues drew most readers.
Russian-speakers living in Finland believe the Ukraine conflict has had a negative impact on Russian-Finnish relations, but most don’t feel that Finnish attitudes towards them have changed for the worse.
The Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner accuses Norway for terror against Russian families living in the country and claims that Norwegian child welfare authorities have taken 55 children away from Russian mothers in course of the last three years.
Statistical trends indicate growth in higher education in the Barents Region. Still, some big contrasts dominate the regional picture, with the Swedish counties on top and the Russian at the bottom.
