In the past years there’s been a trend that people, especially from Central European countries, have moved to rural Norway. Many of them would nod in agreement with the designation of new life style immigration. They have settled down in the smaller places in Norway to be closer to nature, find wider spaces for themselves and a greener life style. Many of them are starting their own businesses. They often settle down on the outskirts of rural areas and invest great energy restoring a small farm and up-grading a house.
Many municipalities in the Valdres and Gudbrandsdal valleys of Oppland have had their own projects for attracting people from the Netherlands to move in. Therefore we’ve seen it as natural to document this special group. Some, but surely not all, had their first contact with Norway through the firm Placement, Inc.

Placement is a company that recruits and arranges for manpower coming particularly from the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany to municipalities in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Many municipalities in Oppland have co-operated with the firm, a corporation led by Gert Rietman.
The Valdres Nature and Culture Park, organized to enhance local food production in the agricultural region of Valdres, carried out a “new arrival project” from September 1, 2007 through August 31, 2009 in cooperation with Placement, Inc. The final report said interest in Valdres had been significant. The list of people who had moved to Valdres by way of this project with Placement numbered 110. Most came from the Netherlands. The report told further that 78 per cent had gotten jobs and 22 percent had started their own enterprises; among these were campgrounds, corner stores, cafés, a foot therapy salon and a sausage making shop. Other people had found jobs as replacement workers, carpenters, cooks, chauffeurs, nurses, forest workers, plumbers, watchmen, engineers, car mechanics, and so on.

By the fall of 2009, 22 people who had came to Valdres via Placement had moved again, either back home or to another place in Norway.

In the report Placement drew attention to difficulties, unfulfilled expectations, and cultural differences. To dream about a place to live is no less than dreaming about a dream home. Some people come with very high expectations both for Placement services and the municipality they’re moving into. Therefore, frustration can be great when things don’t happen as quickly as had been expected or hoped for. Before the project for the whole region began, Placement had worked with the West Sildre municipality. This resulted in around 45 people moving into that area.

From 2003 to 2005 three municipalities in the middle of Gudbrandsdal had a similar cooperative project with Placement. This project recruited a total of 89 persons, most of them coming to the Ringebu municipality. Some of them have moved home or to other places in Norway, but an exact summary isn’t available.

Since 2006 Placement has cooperated with the Lom and Lesja municipalities. To this writing, the project had recruited 29 people. By the fall of 2010 five had moved away.