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full screen The Norwegian government has decided that it will no longer be possible to apply for a residence permit as an au pair in Norway. Archive image. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP
The Norwegian government has decided to abolish the au pair system with immediate effect.
Per Vidar Kjølmoen, Member of Parliament and responsible for trade union policy in the Labor Party, tells Norwegian TV2 that the system has played its part.
– From the beginning, the au pair arrangement was about cultural exchange. To give young people, above all women, an opportunity to get a job and a place to live in exchange for providing help in the family. That is no longer the case. We must dare to call the scheme for what it is: underpaid labour, he says.
Au pairs who already have a contract in Norway are given two years to finish the arrangement and return home. In April last year, 1,100 people had a valid au pair permit in Norway. 85 percent of them came from the Philippines. Au pairs earn just under NOK 6,000 a month in addition to board and lodging.
Unexpectedly, the union supports the decision.
– People who are employed must have the right salary and good working conditions. That has not been the case in the au pair system, says LO vice chairman Sissel Skoghaug.