Re: 'Cos I doubt you'll like what I have to say, for one thing. - Edit 1
Before modification by Camilla at 26/01/2011 08:43:06 AM
I should have kept up on Irish politics.
Norwegian politics is boring, the only point of interest at the moment being that the newspapers and people in general have recently discovered that illegal immigrants are sometimes people with actual lives and identities, not just scary masses of Otherness, and so they want the government to make exceptions for that one person (but god forbid we make the rules more humane to begin with).
Britain...
Don't get me started.
Don't get YOU started, eh? 
And because I'm not knowledgeable, for another. If you were talking about what I think you were, however, bear in mind how often I've publicly said, regarding Americas immigration woes, that amnesty is a slap in the face to those who invest the time, money and energy to immigrate legally just because they aren't willing to introduce themselves to a new country with a criminal act. Then bear in mind that I coughed up $500 to get here, and succeeded in no small part due to indirect connections to an immigration lawyer who could literally explain the immigration laws to the woman who initially denied my visa (she actually thanked him for correcting her ignorance at one point. 
) Further consider that it'll be at least a year before I can even apply for university, because I need some kind of residence permit first and can't even apply for one until two weeks after next falls admissions deadline. Also consider that in my NATIVE country, if someone returns home via deportation the State Dept. revokes their passport and they'll never get another. Ever.
) Further consider that it'll be at least a year before I can even apply for university, because I need some kind of residence permit first and can't even apply for one until two weeks after next falls admissions deadline. Also consider that in my NATIVE country, if someone returns home via deportation the State Dept. revokes their passport and they'll never get another. Ever. Now consider that, from what I'm told, someone who entered the country illegally, ignorantly or not, was made aware of her illegal status yet obtained a masters degree from the state university before declaring herself an illegal immigrant via a book that's reportedly selling quite well, and STILL THINKS SHE SHOULD BE ABLE TO STAY! In looking over the local universitys admissions process I noted a warning that limited space makes it "highly competitive", thus for all the hypothetical abstractions about illegal aliens abusing the system at taxpayer expense in America, someone who'd otherwise have received a university education here was instead denied one because someone here illegally took their spot at a taxpayer funded university. The penalty for that is a trip to Moscow and expedited legal reentry as a resident, or a lifetime without a university degree and commensurately higher earnings, depending on whom you are. What kind of hypocrite would I be if I said this is OK? If I'D pulled that the US would never allow me to leave again, let alone return to Norway. Maybe I should write a book.... 
Remember: I WARNED you! 
Did you get the impression I was in favour of the popular point of view that her staying is unproblematic?
I am not one to mindlessly follow the incoherent outrage of the masses, and I thought my comment made it clear that I found it bizarre that there is such a movement to make her stay while excluding others in a similar position.
But.
There is a difference between asylum and conventional immigration. You are doing the latter. She tried the former. Conflating them does nobody any good. And I will not pretend that the Norwegian bureaucracy is flawless in dealing with the legitimacy of asylum seekers. And being generally in favour of treating people as people, not as mindless "entities" that can be reduced to a statistic, I find our treatment of asylum seekers too restrictive.
(Ironically, this whole mass movement (as I indicated in my original reply) is due to people finally seeing a previous asylum seeker as precisely an individual, which I would like them to do in all cases.)
In this particular case, I do not have anywhere near enough information to take an unequivocal position. There are definite indications that the family was in serious danger, and that it was politically motivated, but that Norwegian immigration authorities failed to recognise that.
If so, that makes the staying illegally much more understandable, and I would much rather an illegal immigrant take a university education than turn to crime.
Whoever told you getting into the local university is hard was ... exaggerating. You pretty much only need to have passed high school.