Challenges of Authenticating Migrants’ Academic Credentials as Part of Integrating in Norway : A Case study of Eritreans in Agder

Abstract

Due to the complex interplay among various push/pull factors that impact livelihoods and comfort zones in the Global South, an unprecedented number of persons are following unfamiliar emigration routes, heading from South to North. Political unrest, war situations, economic crisis, environmental degradations, high unemployment rates and grinding poverty, human rights violation, and the like are amongst the major factors that potentially lead to involuntary emigration. For two reasons, in particular, persons with better education and employable skills have a higher propensity to emigrate. In the first place, structural problems parented by the marginalizing setups within the countries in the South gave birth to situations that are not favourable for the skilled. For the relative consciousness they own, they experience tighter surveillance by and are encountered with complex challenges posed by authoritarian regimes. Constant state violence, under-employment or outright unemployment, and the like lead them to consider emigration as an alternative livelihood.