ABSTRACT
Immigration to the Nordic countries is hardly a new phenomenon. Immigrants – both those travelling great distances but first and foremost migrants from closer surroundings – have entered the region (and moved within the region) for centuries. Nevertheless, what we today associate with the term ‘immigrants’ – those coming from countries outside of the OECD – is basically a post-1960 phenomenon. These so-called ‘new immigrants’ have started coming at different points in time to the Nordic area and they have varied greatly in numbers. Treating the five Nordic countries together in relation to immigration since the 1960s is a somewhat untidy project, as there are cross-cutting similarities and differences between the five states, both in terms of institutional and political context and as to the kind of immigrants who are actually coming, concomitantly and over time.
