After cultural councilor Eduardo Anderson (AP) proudly announced last week that Bergen would now like to make students in the city Bergens on paper.
– We need more climbers and more diversity. We also need smart leaders, he says, and students often are.
Together with the rest of the city council, he has decided that students who report a formal move to Bergen will receive a NOK 2,000 gift card.
The card can of course only be used in this city.
It was Chrono He was the first to report this.
From the front, for example, Christiansand gives Free bus pass For students enrolling there, Bø has been more generous than Bergen. In Telemark municipality, students who claimed to be displaced received NOK 5,000 and five cinema tickets.
Proud Bergenshar: Culture Councilor Eduardo “Dodo” Anderson (AP) believes Bergen can’t be big enough and the city needs more Bergenshars.
Photo: John Polstad / NRK
Pasta and noodles
Bergen has two conditions for receiving a gift card: you must register your move after January 1, 2022, and you must have paid semester fees for spring 2023.
In central Bergen, most of the students I meet say they still live formally where they grew up. From Eidsvoll and Trøgstad to Stord and Askøy.
– Ingrid Salomonsson from Stort says that I had several addresses in Bergen and that address at home.
– Is two thousand kroner enough to become a bergensar?
– Yes, I can’t afford pasta and noodles, that’s enough for me, says Lars Jørgen Bratton on Eatswall.
Ingrid Salomonsen is still registered at Stord, while Nora Bongom from Askøy is not too late to report that she is going to Bergen in 2021.
Photo: Marian Reykeras / NRK
I saw two million
Only the first 1,000 people to register will receive a gift card. The municipality has allocated two million kroner to train students as Bergen officers.
– Without students, Bergen would be a poor city. We need students, who stay in Bergen after their studies, so they can help strengthen the city, says the Cultural Council.
Bergen has about 40,000 students, but Andersen doesn’t know how many of them are not registered in the city.
– We feel it is time to show that we are happy and needed in this group. Bergen will be a student city.
He adds that the aim is to make Bergen a more exciting city and help the business world.
– Are things so bad in Bergen that they need to get more residents this way? Surprises Ullensvang Mayor Roald Aga Haug.
Photo: Tale Hauso / NRK
Mayor: – I want them to stay
Bergen’s attractive offer was poorly received in other municipalities in Westland.
– I didn’t know that Bergen is struggling so much with population that they have to push students to change their address, says Ullensvang mayor Roald aka Haag (AP) sarcastically.
– District municipalities naturally want our students to become permanent residents with us. There are many people who go to Bergen in good time.
– So you want a lot of imaginary residents in your municipality?
– No, they are not imaginary. They have rights and obligations here. After all, many students use doctors and other public services at home.
– How long do you think they will have a home address in the bowel room?
– Reporting a move is voluntary, but politicians in the Storting have been doing it for a very long time, he laughs.
How does Odda in Ullensvang inspire young people to stick with their own municipality?
Photo: K. Knudsen & Co / Bergen University Library
– Premature and invasive
He doesn’t want the district municipalities to take over Bergen to prevent students from being drawn into the move complaint.
– I think Bergen should be a generous “big brother” rather than getting even more residents this way, Haag believes.
Mayor Jenny Folling (SP) in Sunfjords says it’s an aggressive policy to influence students to report moving.
– Large study cities, formal abandonment of district municipalities for youth is certainly not timely.
He points out that the transfer of government funds to municipalities is linked to the number of citizens.
– He believes that it is also important to have a connection between the place where the home is and the young people who are studying.
A group of young ducks wander through the center of Forte and wonder if they will become migratory birds to Bergen.
Photo: Arne Stubak / NRK
– Trøgstad must defend himself
Based on the number of new residents, Bergen will receive a base amount from the state, and students will pay taxes to the city.
However, the Cultural Council does not know what profit the Municipal Corporation wants to gain from this.
– What about the municipalities that are now losing residents and income to Bergen?
– I represent Bergen, then Trogstad can find its representatives, says Andersen.
For Nora Bongom from the nearby municipality of Askai, the gift card offer is a bit of a novelty.
He already registered in Bergen a year and a half ago, so it was not too early to get the gift card.
– I know it was a bit sad right now. She laughs that maybe I should announce I’m going back to Askoy and then back to Bergen.
Fitzgerald loved students far away
Fitzgerald is a counterexample to students influencing the municipal economy.
At the beginning of the year, the mayor made students report moving from afar Fitzgerald, because the municipality will lose NOK 7 million in state aid if the census takes place on January 1. above 3200 people:
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