For Children of Norway, a Rift With the Mother Country
Minneapolis Journal
For Children of Norway, a Rift With the Mother Country
By MONICA DAVEY
Published: November 20, 2007
Norway’s decision to shut its career consulate in Minneapolis has upset residents of the Upper Midwest, which is home to more Norwegian-Americans than any other region of the country.
Excerpts:
“This is a bit of a slap in the face,” Janet Rog, 74, said of Norway’s recent announcement that it would shut its career consulate here next year and send the diplomats home.
The consulate, opened in 1906 and upgraded in 1946 to its current status as consulate general, is a point of pride for the Upper Midwest, which is home to more Norwegian-Americans than any other region of the country.
....
Norwegian officials say their decision to close the consulate, which handles a nine-state region, is simply a matter of money. Jannicke Jaeger, an official at the Norwegian Embassy in Washington, said it cost about $2 million a year to operate the consulate. While it will be closing in 2008, new ones will be opening in China, where the economy is booming, and in Spain, where many Norwegians retire.
....
“It’s silly to think that this place is somehow going to break the budget for Norway,” said Anne Kanten, a resident of Milan, Minn., which calls itself Norwegian Capital U.S.A. “What’s more Norwegian than Minnesota, anyway?”
Three other Norwegian career consulates in the United States will remain open, in New York, San Francisco and Houston. Embassy officials defend those choices as strategic; Houston, for instance, has significance for Norway’s oil interests.
For Minnesotans, that is one more rub.
“Houston?” asked the 80-year-old Mrs. Amundson, laughing faintly. “Houston, Texas?”
Ingebretsen's Scandinavian Center
