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The name Svalbard was officially adopted for the archipelago by Norway under the 1925 Svalbard Act which formally annexed it. [14] The former name Spitsbergen was thenceforth restricted to the main island. In 1827 Baltazar Keilhau first proposed that the Old Norse toponym Svalbarði, found in medieval Icelandic sources, referred to Spitsbergen.
Longyearbyen (Urban East Norwegian: [ˈlɔ̀ŋjɛrˌbyːən], [2] locally [ˈlɔ̀ŋjɑrˌbyːən], "Longyear Town") is the world's northernmost settlement with a population greater than 1,000, and the largest inhabited area of Svalbard, Norway.
[5] Svalbard has a high cost of living, but only a limited welfare system. Welfare and health care is available only for Norwegians and for workers employed by a Norwegian company. [7] The Norwegian Nationality Act applies to Svalbard, see Section 1. However, the Act does not provide any special rules for foreign nationals residing on Svalbard.
The Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, lying roughly midway between Norway’s northern coast and the North Pole, is the site of the world’s northernmost permanent settlements.
Research on Svalbard centers on Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund, the most accessible areas in the high Arctic. Norway grants permission for any nation to conduct research on Svalbard, resulting in the Polish Polar Station, Indian Himadri Station, and the Chinese Arctic Yellow River Station, plus Russian facilities in Barentsburg. [58]
Bear Island (Norwegian: Bjørnøya, pronounced [ˈbjø̀ːɳœʏɑ]) is the southernmost island of the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago.The island is located at the limits of the Norwegian and Barents seas, approximately halfway between Spitsbergen and the North Cape.
Norway cannot use the archipelago for warlike purposes, cannot discriminate economic activity based on nationality and is required to conserve the natural environment. Uniquely, Svalbard is an entirely visa-free zone. Everybody may live and work in Svalbard indefinitely regardless of country of citizenship.
Norway grants permission for any nation to conduct research on Svalbard, resulting in the Polish Polar Station and the Chinese Arctic Yellow River Station. [14] The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) in Longyearbyen was established in 1993 and offers undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate courses to 350 students. [ 15 ]