Before Sigrun Aasland moved from a school catchment area dominated by pupils from minority backgrounds to a detached house in a «white» and affluent school catchment area, she was highly concerned with how neighbourhoods affected children’s opportunities. She lashed out at Sylvi Listhaug over her detached house, million-kroner income and ministerial post. Now she has the same herself, but she does not want to talk about that.
When the current Minister of Research and Higher Education, Sigrun Aasland, was still a member of the Socialist Left Party (SV), while serving as head of policy at the left-wing think tank Agenda, she was active on X (formerly Twitter), expressing her views.
Let us look back to 2016.
Sigrun Aasland and her husband Ivar Strand lived in a block of flats in the Gamle Oslo borough. The address fell within the catchment area of Gamlebyen school, which at the time had a 60 per cent share of pupils from minority backgrounds. Aasland was head of policy at Agenda, while her husband was well under way with the highly lucrative company Abyrint AS, which was skimming off aid funds for Somalia to the tune of millions of kroner.
Extraordinary rise up the social ladder, funded by foreign aid
Engagement and frustration
Their children were approaching school age, something that was naturally reflected in Aasland’s focus. On 24 October 2016, this found expression on Twitter in the form of five tweets within 19 minutes, which, according to social media experts, indicates engagement and/or frustration. We list them in order:
- «Segregation inhibits socioeconomic mobility» (here)
- «The US does not have one narrative about inequality, but many. We can learn policy lessons from that» (here)
- «Neighbourhoods and networks affect children’s opportunities» (here)
- «Can teacher quality be measured? Well. But better to control for socioeconomic variables than not to do so?» (here)
- «Rich children invent more than poor children; simply doing well at school doesn’t help. (here)
Screenshot from X, which was still called Twitter when Aasland posted this in 2016.
There was no doubt that Aasland was concerned with socioeconomic differences, neighbourhoods and children’s living conditions.
About Gamlebyen school, whose catchment area they lived in, one can read:
«The school had a strong focus on diversity, with introductory classes for Norwegian-language instruction. This is reflected in the vision “The future starts here”, which emphasises openness and room for everyone. Parents and pupils described the environment as safe and inclusive, and the school cooperated with local kindergartens».
Based on this, everything should have been in place for the children to enjoy a safe and inclusive school experience, while it would still have been possible to maintain an urban lifestyle.
Attacked Sylvi Listhaug
But much suggests that Aasland was nevertheless frustrated and angry. For three weeks later, on 15 November, she attacked Sylvi Listhaug.
At the time, Listhaug was Minister of Immigration and Integration in Erna Solberg’s government, which was working to tighten asylum and immigration policy. She was frequently in the media because of the sharply opposing positions in the debate over immigration and the integration of, among others, minor asylum seekers.
Aasland’s alleged frustration with Listhaug found expression in the following message:
«When exactly did government ministers with inherited farms and detached houses become ordinary people? @Madeleineschka has had enough. Read!»
Attached to this rhetorical question, which played on the Progress Party’s slogan «for ordinary people», was a link to an article from Agenda Magasin, which elaborated on the frustration. The text was strongly opinionated and opened in a mocking tone:
«Heiress-to-the-family-farm Sylvi, with her x number of personal communications advisers, million-kroner income, ministerial post and home in Oslo’s finest West End….»
(Screenshot from X)
The first paragraph read:
Today I woke up as usual, in the studio flat I rent at the lower end of Grünerløkka in central Oslo. It is starting to get cold in the combined bedroom and living room now, but it is actually all right, because I heat it with an oil-filled radiator that my dad has lent me. And it helps that there are two of us in the 120 cm-wide bed. Almost three, because in the spring I am going to have my first child. Others are too; Immigration Minister Sylvi Listhaug is also pregnant.
Madeleine Schultz’s article in Agenda Magasin, which was shared by government minister Sigrun Aasland on what was then Twitter in 2016.
The tweeting continued for a little while, including two tweets on 20 January 2017 suggesting that she was not particularly enthusiastic about the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
Aasland’s tweeting then abruptly came to an end, and it has been quiet ever since.
From multi- to monoculture
The financial situation at this point was that her husband Ivar Strand, in addition to drawing a salary in the millions of kroner, had received NOK 4.4 million in after-tax dividends from the aid consultancy Abyrint, of which he owns 50 per cent.
Title information from the Land Register shows that Sigrun Aasland and Ivar Strand acquired a property in Nordstrand for NOK 9.6 million.
The address falls within the catchment area of Nordseter school. At the time, the proportion of pupils from minority backgrounds was only 10 per cent, and the following was written about Nordseter school at the time: «The school is situated in an affluent area on the Nordstrand plateau. Well-being was reported to be high, with a focus on relationship-building and activities that promoted cohesion. The school had an active pupil council, elective subjects and cooperation with nearby upper secondary schools such as Kongshavn VGS, which lower secondary pupils visited to gain an insight into further education.»
Replaced poverty with climate
Aid money for Somalia had made possible an increase in prosperity from multicultural Gamlebyen to the typically «white» and affluent Nordstrand.
With the move, she also left the Socialist Left Party in favour of the Labour Party. She became involved in the school catchment area, serving as a board member, chair and general manager of the parents’ council at Nordseter school.
With the move from Gamlebyen to Nordstrand, her engagement with socioeconomic differences was replaced by engagement with the climate issue.
In 2021, she became managing director of the ZERO Environmental Foundation and a board member of the climate festival Varmere, Våtere, Villere. This provided the route into the position of State Secretary at the Ministry of Climate and Environment, which she took up last year. When the Centre Party withdrew from the government, she was promoted to Minister of Research and Higher Education.
Will not answer
Document.no has put questions to Aasland in this connection. Among other things, we asked what significance the influence of neighbourhoods and networks on children’s opportunities had for her decision to move from Gamlebyen to Nordstrand.
Aasland’s only response is that she does not wish to comment on this.