Ageing in the Arctic:
Cross-cultural Insights (Insights Phase)

Norway’s older population is becoming more diverse. Public services, local communities, and welfare systems need to reflect that change.

Ageing in the Arctic: Cross-Cultural Insights is a design and research project led by Fabric+ in partnership with the Nordic Welfare Centre and Design and Architecture Norway (DOGA). The project explores how older immigrants experience ageing in Norway and identifies implications for municipalities, service providers, and decision-makers.

The work focused on Bodø and Oslo, with additional Nordic perspectives and references. More than 35 contributors participated, including older immigrants, researchers, subject experts, community organisers, social workers, and policymakers. The project combined interviews, workshops, co-creation sessions, and a review of relevant literature. It was developed in dialogue with the Centre for an Age-Friendly Norway at the Norwegian Directorate of Health.

Key objectives and insights

• Learn from lived experiences to inform service development. The project explores how older immigrants experience ageing in Norway, with the aim of using these insights as a foundation for developing more relevant and effective services.

• Enable co-creation with older immigrants. A central objective is to shift from designing for to designing with, ensuring that older immigrants are actively involved in shaping services, initiatives, and local solutions.

• Improve service quality, accessibility, and relevance. By integrating lived experiences into design and decision-making processes, the project identifies how services and offers can become more accessible, trustworthy, and better aligned with diverse needs.

Background

Migration shapes how people understand ageing, care, and community. These perspectives are critical for inclusive service development.

At the same time, evidence shows clear disparities:
Older immigrants use health services less, report poorer health, and face language and structural barriers (FHI, 2022). Many experience earlier ageing and higher health burdens. Immigration will drive population growth from 2050 (SSB).

Despite this, their experiences remain underrepresented in policy and service development.

Results

The project produced nine findings and seven recommendations that together point toward a more inclusive approach to ageing services in Norway.

The findings reveal that older immigrants are often caught between policy systems, face language and structural barriers, and experience ageing in ways that current services are not designed to accommodate, raising critical questions around dignity, social connection, dementia care, and economic equity.

The recommendations emphasise the importance of working through trusted intermediaries, meeting people where they are, and building relationships based on continuity and genuine dialogue rather than one-way communication.

Taken together, the results make a clear case for shifting from standardised service delivery toward more flexible, human-centred approaches that recognise the diverse experiences older immigrants bring and the value those experiences hold for the communities they are part of.

To explore the findings and recommendations in full, take a look at the report.